A Different Demon-Sealing Record
by DizzyHMuffin
Summary: (Story of Eastern Wonderland retelling) Reimu has been the Shrine Maiden of Hakurei for a little over a year. One day, the Hakurei Shrine gets blown up by a Flower Tank. On the back of the flying tortoise Genjii, she chases down the culprit. Who was that green-haired ghost? How many youkai exterminators got cursed? And just who is Yakumo Yukari? [KS #1]
1. Chapter 1: Chelonian Aviation

**Author's notes:** This fic isn't part of my previous fanfic-universe, it's an entirely new thing. One of my goals here is to be legible for newcomers to the Touhou fandom and for readers who know nothing. That said, beware: while the characters and stories might be recognizable in broad strokes, and I'm using a whole bunch of semi-obscure details from canon supplemental materials, it's mostly the kind of AU where canon has been slow roasted 225° and carved for juicy bits.

Further notes at the end of the chapter.

 **Content warnings for this chapter:** Canon levels of danmaku-violence.

* * *

Perhaps you've heard of the realm called Gensokyo, the Land of Illusion. It is a realm of magic and gods and monsters, where all the stories begin with the words "Once upon a time ..." Once, it was hidden away by the mountains of Japan; today, it is hidden by the Great Hakurei Barrier, a boundary of common sense which has stood since the summer of A.D. 1885. Broadly speaking, nothing living may pass through the Barrier ... which is just as well, because outside of the Human Village and the Hakurei Shrine in the east, nearly all of Gensokyo's inhabitants are _youkai_ — a Japanese word which is used in this land as a catchall term for any non-human, non-divine supernatural creature.

Perhaps you've heard of the Hakurei Shrine, which lies at the easternmost edge of the Barrier. The existence of this Shinto shrine can be viewed as synonymous with that of Gensokyo itself, because one of the duties of the Shrine Maidens of Hakurei is the maintenance of the Great Hakurei Barrier. Indeed, there have been times in Gensokyo's history in which the existence of the realm was threatened merely by the death of the Shrine Maiden, and the lack of an immediate replacement. The other role of the Hakurei Miko is of course the extermination of any youkai who threaten the lives and welfare of Gensokyo's humans.

Perhaps you've heard of Hakurei Reimu, the current Shrine Maiden of Hakurei. If you already know about Gensokyo as it currently stands, you've certainly heard of _her_. The fourteenth Hakurei Miko is well known as a study in contradictions. She is formidable, yet laid-back; she tirelessly performs work which entails hostility towards youkai, and yet bears no ill will against them; she is utterly devoted to the role of a Shrine Maiden in all ways, except that of the uniform. There are many tales told of Hakurei Reimu and her battles against gods, powerful or dangerous humans, and all manner of youkai.

This is not one of these formidable tales. Instead, it is the tale of Hakurei Reimu's very first adventure. The tale of her first encounter with the samurai Miyamoto Meira, who ended up having a _much_ greater role in Reimu's life a few years later, and with Kirisame Marisa, Reimu's sometimes-partner, sometimes-rival.

And, of course, it is the tale of Hakurei Reimu's first battle with the vengeful spirit Mima.

The story begins one afternoon in the summer, one hundred fifteen years after the creation of the Great Hakurei Barrier ...

* * *

 _ **A DIFFERENT DEMON-SEALING RECORD**_

 **Chapter 1: Chelonian Aviation**

It was about 5:30 PM on Thursday, the twentieth of July, year 116 of the Hakurei Era (which of course began with year 1, not 0). Hakurei Reimu was sitting at a small desk in the Shrine's living quarters, a little ways to the north of the main Shrine. It was a small building, only just large enough that you could say the kitchen was separate from the living space, and with nowhere to store her futon mattress except to leave it rolled up in one corner. It was an old building, and had probably stood since the formation of the Great Hakurei Barrier.

Reimu herself was only fourteen years old. She was a bit short for her age; she had waist-length light purple hair tied in a red bow, and at the moment, she was dressed in a white kimono jacket with detached sleeves and red hakama trousers — more or less the uniform of a traditional Shinto miko. Several moments ago, she had been working on a homework assignment. Now, however, she was procrastinating by writing calligraphic charms on rectangular strips of paper: ofuda, the most important tools of both youkai-extermination and of the majority of a Shinto shrine maiden's other duties. A pile for exterminating youkai here, a pile for dispelling curses there, a pile of good luck charms here ... a little bit of everything. Leaning against the desk was her gohei, the Hakurei Miko's second-most important tool, a short thin wooden rod with zigzagging paper streamers attached to one end.

Reimu had officially been the Shrine Maiden for a little over fifteen months, and she still felt as though she hadn't quite adjusted. As much as any other reason, there was still a fading sense of grief over the death of her predecessor, Hakurei Chiyo. It didn't help that at any given moment, Reimu was the only person around for miles, apart from the Shrine's deity, who had been silent and absent for as long as Reimu could remember, and a divine spirit named Genjii, whom Reimu sometimes felt was entirely too vociferous.

Her history was ... about what you might expect. She was a stray orphan who'd been taken in by Chiyo; Reimu had never known her parents, and for all she knew, she could have been somehow brought in from from the Outside World, though Chiyo's abilities as the Hakurei Shrine Maiden had confirmed that Reimu's origins were in Gensokyo instead. She celebrated her birthday on the first of November, because "probably October or November" was as close as anyone knew.

Hakurei Chiyo herself had been a cold, taciturn woman. She'd uncomplainingly gone out every few weeks or months to battle against troublemaking youkai, and didn't say anything even when she came home covered in bite marks and claw marks and had to spend the next few days in bed covered in bandages. Chiyo had somewhat perfunctorily named Reimu as her successor about two years ago ...

... and then last year in March, she'd gone out one night and simply never returned. They hadn't been _that_ close; their relationship had actually been somewhat chilly, as far as Reimu had any frame of reference for that sort of thing. It still stung, though.

Incidentally, she was fully aware that this was the fate of all Hakurei Shrine Maidens: five or ten or fifteen years after you started, you'd go out one night to fight monsters, and never return. Chiyo had only been twenty-nine years old, for gods' sakes; she'd lasted twelve years. With the Shrine's god unwilling or unable to say anything, Reimu didn't even know what Chiyo had been fighting, or if her death had accomplished anything.

Reimu sighed and set down her calligraphy brush, leaning back in her chair and rubbing her eyes. Meanwhile, the past year had been dead quiet. The people who'd gone out of the village for whatever reason hadn't been particularly bothered by fairies, let alone eaten by youkai. Well, there was one thirteen-year-old runaway, what was her name, Ki something Ma something. Reimu couldn't remember. But she hadn't been seen in over a month, and after anyone was missing for more than a week or three in Gensokyo, especially if it was a child, there was nothing anyone could do except make arrangements for the funeral. The bottom line was that there was suspiciously little for Reimu to do besides training to be Chiyo's replacement —

There was the distant sound of a loud metallic pop, followed by a loud splintering explosion right next door. Debris pattered against the walls and roof of the living quarters.

Reimu jumped, knocking her chair over in her haste. She grabbed her gohei in her left hand, slipped several ofuda up her sleeve, and flung open the sliding door.

The Hakurei Shrine's main building had been leveled by the blast. There were a few black wisps of smoke.

Reimu screamed, _"GENJIIIIIIII!"_

Genjii appeared out of thin air beside her. He had the appearance of a two-meter-long tortoise with a bushy white beard, and was surrounded by a faint sensation of holiness. "What ... oh no!" he said. "Miss Hakurei, quickly, get on my back and summon the Yin-Yang Orb!"

"Uh, right!" said Reimu. She quickly slipped into her sandals, and climbed onto Genjii's back. "Okay. Yes. I ... I can do this, it'll be fine, it'll be ... just like fighting fairies. Summon Yin-Yang Orb, summon Yin-Yang Orb ..."

At Reimu's mental command, a crystal orb the size of her head flew out of the wreckage. It was red and white, with a pattern that made it look like a spherical yin-yang symbol. Reimu commanded it to split in two, and in a flash of light, a second identical one appeared. "Okay, uh, right," she said, setting them to hover behind her shoulders. "Let's go!"

"Do you have your youkai-extermination ofuda?" said Genjii.

" _Yes_ , Gramps, first thing I grabbed, just like you told me!" Reimu said hurriedly.

Genjii lifted off the ground, in defiance of all known laws of aviation as they concern tortoises. Most beings in Gensokyo could fly, of course, and it was easy enough that even most humans could do it if they had a reason to learn, but Reimu had a ways to go before she could usefully do so in battle; one of Genjii's primary duties was transportation for fledgling Shrine Maidens, or more precisely, not-quite-fledgling Shrine Maidens.

Genjii flew westward down the cobbled pathway in front of the Shrine. Just past the torii arch, the path descended about a dozen meters down a flight of steps, and the cobblestones continued for about half a kilometer. Sitting in the middle the road was a large squat tank with its cannon pointed up the steps. It looked as though part of it had been built using bits left over from the Shrine, and had subsequently become overgrown with vines and flowers. A black and white yin-yang was painted on the top.

"Uh-oh," said Reimu. She had never seen a tank before, but she understood the general principle.

The tank rotated its cannon to point directly at Reimu and Genjii. _"Uh-oh!"_ said Reimu, and then let out a yelp as Genjii dived downward just as the tank fired a shell towards them. It exploded harmlessly in a rainbow-colored fireball, several dozen meters above them.

"Miss Hakurei," said Genjii urgently, "I strongly recommend that you draw upon the maximum power of the Yin-Yang Orbs!"

"Oh! Right!" said Reimu, who had already figured out that this wasn't going to be like fighting fairies at all. She clasped her hands together and began willing the Yin-Yang Orbs to lend her their power. She'd done this before, of course, but until now, Genjii had forbidden her from drawing more than half of their maximum. Drawing the maximum power would grant Reimu access to the combat abilities of all the Hakurei Shrine Maidens who had come before her.

Right. Okay. There were a couple of obvious potential weak points. Its biggest weakness was of course whoever was driving it, whether they were human or youkai — her intuition suggested that they were human, but she wasn't sure about the reasoning. The shells would be easy enough to dodge, unless it had other kinds of weaponry. Reimu flew towards the tank, making sure she avoided the cannon's line of fire, then —

— realized that what was _actually_ happening was that she was moving her feet across Genjii's back in a prearranged pattern, how the _heck_ did she know what to do, _no, stop that line of thought, it's a distraction, it's panic, there's an enemy right in front of me, I_ know _I'm getting this knowledge from the Yin-Yang Orbs ..._

And that was when the tank started firing a thick swarm of orbs of light: danmaku, the magical martial art of choice for everyone in Gensokyo, from the mightiest gods and demons to the lowliest spirits. Reimu directed Genjii to weave through the glowing bullets in a manner which wasn't "dodging" so much as "navigating". She could feel the energy of the bullets all around her, beyond her mere sight and hearing; she just _knew_ how the pattern was moving, where to position herself and Genjii, where gaps in the bullets were about to appear that she and the tortoise could fit through.

Abruptly, the barrage stopped. Reimu paused to see if the tank was going to do anything else, but then the hatch started to pop open. She flew Genjii right up to the tank and said, "Hey you!" As she said this, she realized that she would most likely come up with a much better opening line at 3 AM the next morning.

Out climbed an older teenage girl with brown hair in a pair of braids. She wore an oil-stained white shirt and a knee-length brown pleated skirt. "There's no need to _whoa_ you're a lot younger than I was expecting."

Reimu bristled. "What _were_ you expecting?" she snapped.

The girl looked confused for a few seconds, then shrugged. Reimu thought she felt _something_ — "Doesn't matter!" said the girl. "Uh ... there's no need to say anything, Shrine Maiden! I'm Hara Rika, The Nineteen-Year-Old Genius! _You're_ the one responsible for that stupid rule, keeping my weapons and inventions out of the Human Village!"

Reimu was genuinely baffled. "What? I haven't made _any_ rules!" she said, fighting a mounting sense of panic. Had Chiyo done something ...?

Rika pointed dramatically at Reimu. "A likely story!" she exclaimed. "I'll take you out, and take the Yin-Yang Orb as a prize! Uh, Orbs, I mean! You know what I mean!"

That's when Reimu realized what she was sensing. There was a dark presence, like an invisible shadow cast over Rika, concentrated around her head. "Uh ... Gramps ..."

"Yes," said Genjii. "I feel it too. Some form of curse is clouding Miss Hara's mind."

Rika blinked a few times, looking as though she was trying to interpret something in a language she only half-understood, while some form of curse was clouding her mind. "Uh ... _what-freaking-ever!"_ she said. She shook her head as if to clear it, and Reimu felt a stronger surge of dark power. "Would you please be destroyed by my Flower Tank!?" said Rika, striking a dramatic pose with one hand near her face and the other held out to her side.

"Hey!" said Reimu. But Rika was already jumping back into the tank, and she slammed the hatch shut before Reimu could react.

The tank resumed its barrage of danmaku. Reimu swerved to the side, then let out a yelp as she went a bit too far and a couple of bullets grazed her arm.

"Do be careful, Miss Hakurei!" said Genjii.

"I know! Shut up! Lemme concentrate!" Reimu moved Genjii to a higher position. "Okay, uh, let's see how that thing can dodge!" She swung her gohei at the tank, returning fire with danmaku of her own. Instead of white orbs, Reimu's bullets appeared to be glowing red ofuda with illegible white calligraphy. It was a simple pattern for now, mostly aimed directly at the tank.

There was a yelp from inside, and the tank slowly backed up a few meters. It was struck by every ofuda-bullet that crossed its path, leaving a couple of scorch marks.

Reimu broke into a wide grin. "Oh! It _can't_ dodge!" she said. She mentally ran through the Yin-Yang Orbs' offensive maneuvers in search of something particularly flashy. "Okay! Time to end this!"

She sent Genjii into a dive beneath the latest barrage, and pulled up just before hitting the ground. Genjii let out a cry of alarm, and pulled his legs into his shell. Reimu fired a few bursts of danmaku directly into the tank's caterpillar treads, and was rewarded by a satisfying crunch. Rika was still firing _above_ Reimu, so she set the Yin-Yang Orbs to stay where they were, swung around to the other side of the tank from behind, and then ... recalled them.

One Yin-Yang Orb knocked the tank to the side by several centimeters, and the other actually tore the cannon off. Smoke began rising from the back of the main ... body. Reimu didn't actually know what the different parts of tanks were called. "Okay, Gramps, I'm gonna use Fantasy Seal!" said Reimu. Fantasy Seal was a Spell Card, a particularly powerful danmaku pattern; typically, they were also particularly elegant. It was also the only one Reimu could actually use at the current stage of her training.

"Very good," said Genjii.

Even before he'd finished speaking, Reimu clasped her hands together, gohei held upright, and concentrated. After a few seconds, there was a hissing roar, and a red-and-white aura surrounded her and Genjii. The two Yin-Yang Orbs became seven, in all the colors of the rainbow, and spun counterclockwise around her in a wide orbit. Then, one by one, all seven orbs slammed into the back of the tank, leaving bigger and bigger dents, until the last tore out a large chunk. Reddish-orange flames started to lick out of the tank's body.

"Well done, Miss Hakurei," said Genjii. "But next time, I recommend that you fire actual danmaku from the Yin-Yang Orbs."

"Oh, uh ... right." Reimu cancelled the Spell Card. The aura faded, and all but the original two Yin-Yang Orbs disappeared.

Rika popped open the tank's hatch and frantically scrambled out, coughing. She jumped into the air and began flying as fast as she could ... _past_ Reimu, towards the trees. _"Get outta here!"_ she screamed. She wasn't actually flying that fast ...

Reimu exchanged a glance with Genjii, and he nodded. He pulled in front of Rika, and she landed on his shell, clinging on for dear life. Genjii almost immediately took a nose dive into the trees and flipped upside down, depositing Reimu and Rika onto the forest floor with a shared yelp of surprise, then positioned himself on top of them and pulled his head and legs into his shell.

The tank exploded noisily in a brilliant, sparkling fireball.

Genjii moved aside. "We appear to have borne the worst of it," he announced. "I overestimated the size of the explosion and the reach of the debris."

"Damn turtle," said Rika, staggering to her feet. "You could've at least _warned_ me!"

"Yeah, seriously, Gramps," said Reimu, rubbing her leg. "That's the kind of thing where you should _say_ what you're doing!"

"My apologies, Miss Hakurei, Miss Hara," said Genjii. "It has been more than ten years since I was required to serve a Shrine Maiden in battle."

Rika whirled to face Reimu. "And as for _you_ —"

Reimu slapped a curse-removal ofuda onto Rika's forehead. There was a sizzling sound, like water splashed on a hot pan. Rika froze in place and toppled over onto her back, twitching, as faint wisps of black smoke rose up around the charm. As its power was expended, the ink on the ofuda spontaneously began to run, and the paper crumpled and yellowed.

"There," said Reimu. Genjii sighed with relief.

Rika groaned as if she'd been unconscious. "What the ..." She fumbled with the spent ofuda, stared at it, and then slumped back onto the ground, putting her hands over her eyes. "Oh gods. Did I really just blow up the Hakurei Shrine?"

"I wouldn't say it was _you_ ," said Reimu. "It was whoever put that curse on you that was messing with your head!" She held her hand out to help Rika up.

Rika sat up, shaking her head. "Ugh, I'm an _idiot_!" she said. "Gods _damn_ it ... stupid, stupid, this shouldn't have happened to me, I've been in the Defense Force for three years now! I've literally been a Defender since the day I came of age!"

Reimu frowned, and lowered her hand. The Youkai-Extermination Defense Force was a group of humans based in the Human Village, and while they weren't quite as effective as the Shrine Maiden, they were sensible enough to put up charms that _should_ have been enough keep evil at bay ...

"Miss Hara," Genjii said firmly, "do you have any idea as to who might have done this to you?"

"Yeah, it was this teenage-looking redheaded youkai in a pinkish-purple dress," said Rika. She hesitantly reached out, and Reimu helped her to her feet. "I have this workshop outside the village. I was working on the Flower Tank when I heard danmaku. I looked up, and there she was, she just zapped me with this bullet that looked like the kanji for 'curse'."

"No room to dodge?" Reimu said sympathetically.

"Haha, nope," Rika said glumly. "Not like I can do much without my inventions, anyway. But then this green-haired ghost wearing a blue cape floated in, and she told me that the reason I wasn't allowed to use my inventions was because of a rule made by the Shrine Maiden."

"... _Is_ there a rule like that?" said Reimu.

"Sort of, I just can't bring any of 'em into the Village," said Rika. "It's ... slightly annoying at _worst_ , and I can understand why they have the rule." She gestured back towards the path. "I mean, case in point."

They walked back out to the flaming wreckage. A thick pillar of smoke rose into the sky. It didn't sound like fires Reimu was used to; it was a little less crackly, a little more windy. It also smelled considerably more ghastly.

"There was also a little red-haired girl in a purple witch costume," said Rika. "She didn't look like she was related to the curse-girl, but she looked like she was younger than you."

"Another youkai?" said Reimu.

"I'm not sure," said Rika.

Reimu nodded, and shrugged. "Don't suppose you got any of their names?"

"Nope," said Rika.

"Worry not," said Genjii. "We shall probably solve this mystery soon enough."

Reimu sighed. "Yeah ..."

She looked back up the shrine's steps to the torii arch, thanking the gods in general and the deity of the Hakurei Shrine in particular that she'd been ... doing homework in the living quarters instead of dealing with something in the Shrine. She'd been looking forward to slacking off on her homework tonight, maybe practice some of the kagura dances for maintaining the Great Hakurei Barrier, and then after dinner and a bath, she wanted to just laze around until it was time for bed. Really, in spite of her anxieties about the other shoe dropping, she'd mostly hoped she'd be able to fly under her own power before she'd had to deal with something _huge and major_ like, say, a curse-flinging youkai who could break through the Defense Force's wards. Those hopes had just been blown up by an artillery shell.

"And where did 'nineteen-year-old genius' even come from?" muttered Rika.

Reimu turned back to the wreckage of the tank. Well ... if someone was attacking the Shrine, exterminating them would _also_ indirectly help the Barrier. After that, lazing around for a bit would be a reward, wouldn't it? There was nothing for it but to get up and go.

"We're gonna need more ofuda," she said.

* * *

This was all visible in a crystal ball, sitting in the middle of a table in a shack somewhere in Gensokyo. It was being watched by a green-haired ghost-woman, a redheaded teenage-looking youkai, and a little red-haired witch girl.

The witch looked up at the ghost. The conversation was ... amusing, but Rika had still lost. What would ...?

"Hm, what's this emotion I'm feeling?" the ghost said blandly. "Oh, I know what it is. I'm feeling _not_ -surprise. I'm feeling the exact diametric _opposite_ of surprise that Hara Rika lost."

"Yeah, why'd ya even bother with her, anyway?" said the witch.

"Seriously, boss," said the curse-girl. "I mean, she got rid of the Shrine nice and quick, but apart from that —"

"That _is_ why we bothered with her," said the ghost. "Notwithstanding her skewed priorities regarding the basic ability to dodge, the Flower Tank certainly worked as a tool for shrine-removal."

"Oh," said the curse-girl. "Oh! Yeah, I get it."

The witch exchanged a glance with the ghost, and then sighed and peered down at the crystal ball. The curses were useful to The Plan, but the youkai casting them was ... less so.

Reimu had climbed back onto Genjii's back, and was now flying up the steps with Rika in tow. The ghost said, "Well, I can't move our point of view too far into the shrine's territory until it becomes noticeably less sacred, so —" She abruptly stopped as another figure appeared from the trees where Genjii and the girls had been just a moment ago.

It was a tall, slender woman with short golden hair, dressed in white robes and a white hat. She had nine golden fox-tails, each nearly as long as she was tall.

"Oh, crap," said the curse-girl. She and the ghost had suddenly become very tense.

"Who's _that?"_ said the witch, looking from one to the other uneasily. "And how'd those guys miss seeing her in the woods there?"

The fox-woman suddenly turned around and looked up.

It didn't make any sense whatsoever, but from the young witch's perspective, it looked as though the fox-woman was staring right out of the crystal ball, directly up at the two older youkai.

The ghost quickly waved her hand. The crystal ball went dark.

"Who _was_ that fox?" said the witch.

"Someone very dangerous," said the ghost, "who works for someone even _more_ dangerous." She shrugged and smiled, though she was obviously not as calm as she was trying to look. "We'll have to see how this plays out. The good news is, that particular faction is something of a wild card when it comes to handling the Hakurei Shrine Maiden. Of course, this is also the bad news."

"Oh jeez," said the witch.

"Oh, crap," the curse-girl said again.

* * *

 **Author's notes:** So, yeah, welcome to my new fic. Basically, among other ideas, I decided to try to fit the PC-98 and Windows settings together, maybe figure out what life is actually _like_ in Gensokyo. I'm going to start at the beginning, where there are fewer obvious differences at first.

Having said _that_ , this is mostly the kind of AU which is defined primarily in terms of me doing whatever I want. (Exactly like the previous one, in fact ... just with a bit less shipping. Also no OCs as major characters if I can avoid it, though there might be a few one-scene wonders who aren't particularly important to the plot.) The stories might be familiar at first glance, but they'll be constructed out of different parts, or the same parts will be used to construct something entirely new, and with entirely new ideas added to taste (i.e. the fact that the Yin-Yang Orbs grant the combat abilities of past Shrine Maidens, which seemed as good an explanation as any). I mean, that's kind of the whole point of fanfiction, isn't it?

One of my decisions which I am fully aware is weird from a fanfic perspective is that every human character shall have a full name and an age. The age, I just sort of eyeballed a given character and went "yeah, sounds about right." Then I just do whatever I want. (You'll notice that a lot of them are slightly older than you might expect.) For the names, I followed the same procedure as ZUN, i.e. all canon characters have names which are either 1. allusions to figures of history and/or myth, 2. etymological puns, or more rarely, 3. just names I thought sounded nice (much more common with characters who have bit parts, and I'll generally try to keep anime or pop culture references to a minimum). I'm not going to try to do it much with nonhuman characters, especially fairies ("Cirno McAllister").

This installment is seven chapters long, plus an epilogue and a list of characters. It still kind of ended up being mostly fight scenes, natch. It's already all written, and I'll be releasing chapters on Mondays and Thursdays.

Also: If you've played any of the Windows games, you know exactly what the "hissing roar" of an activated Spell Card sounds like.


	2. Chapter 2: Of Gods and Fairies

**Chapter 2: Of Gods and Fairies**

They began making their way towards the Human Village; apart from anything else, Rika's superiors were probably going to want Reimu's side of the story no matter what. Reimu now had a satchel slung over her shoulder, containing several dozen ofuda of various types, plus a hearty packed dinner for two.

(Reimu was initially slightly jumpy about Rika flying around in a skirt, but Rika wore bloomers, which were considered outerwear to a sufficient degree that one might simply wear them under one's skirt while flying. And that's quite enough of _that_ train of thought, thank you very much.)

An unpaved dirt road led directly to the Human Village. Most of Gensokyo consisted of forests, fields, and rolling hills. The biggest geographical feature was Youkai Mountain in the west, a dormant volcano which was home to such creatures as the duchy of the tengu, and the looser coalition of kappa. It was directly across Gensokyo from the Hakurei Shrine; coincidentally, the Human Village was almost directly between them. If there hadn't been a road, Reimu could have found the Human Village by simply flying towards Youkai Mountain.

About half an hour after they set out, they passed through a wide open field, about a full kilometer from end to end. "Think we can break for dinner here?" said Reimu. "I'm getting kinda peckish."

"I have no objections," said Genjii. "Ms. Hara?"

"Um, sure," said Rika.

Genjii landed by a tree, and Reimu and Rika sat down. Reimu brought out the bento boxes. They both gave the traditional Japanese thanks for the meal, and Reimu added, "Don't throw the box away."

"I won't," said Rika with a grin. She looked up at Genjii. "You need anything?"

"No, thank you," he said. "I do not require food."

"All right," said Rika. "Sorry for raiding your larder, by the way ..."

"Don't worry about it," said Reimu, picking up a bit of fish with her chopsticks. "I guess after dealing with that curse stuff, I figure you deserved some kind of pick-me-up, kinda thing." She'd heard Chiyo say something like this once.

Rika fiddled with her chopsticks, grimacing. "I don't really feel like I 'deserve' anything after I blew up the shrine," she said. "I feel like a youkai just thinking about it. A stupid, reckless youkai ..."

"No, Miss Hara," Genjii said gently, "I would say that you feel like a human. A youkai would have been proud of what she'd accomplished, not disgusted with herself and remorseful."

"Heh. Good point." Rika managed a smile. "Thanks ... Gramps."

Reimu giggled. Genjii just grumbled.

Silence descended, except for the sounds of birdsong, and the chattering of a group of fairies playing tag at the north end of the field.

"You holding up okay, Reimu?" Rika said suddenly.

"Hm?" Reimu swallowed her mouthful of rice. "Um, yeah, why?"

Rika shrugged. "Well, you're kind of ... I dunno how say this." She laughed nervously. "You're, uh, two years younger than the minimum age of the Defense Force, so ..."

"Um, I dunno," said Reimu. "I've been having an easy time so far."

Rika nodded slowly. "Well, the Flower Tank was kind of pathetic," she said. "Just ... watch out for yourself, okay?"

"I don't think I'll have any problems with fighting," said Reimu. She got the impression that Rika was trying to distract herself from her guilt. "Well, I've got the Hakurei Yin-Yang Orb, that'll see me through the fights for a while!"

"I think I've heard about that," said Rika. "You get the powers and memories from the previous Shrine Maidens, right?"

"Broadly correct," said Genjii. "Only the combat capabilities are recorded and passed on, however. It certainly helped that the first three Shrine Maidens, Hakurei Ichigo, Niji, and Sanna, were already extraordinary youkai exterminators by the time they began serving the Shrine."

"It's _really weird_ ," said Reimu. "Like ... I suddenly knew how to do things I didn't know before. It almost felt like ... like the Yin-Yang Orb is using _me_ to fight, instead of me using it."

"That will pass, as you grow accustomed to battle," said Genjii. "The guiding affect appears to have been specifically built into the Yin-Yang Orb as an aid for novice Shrine Maidens."

"The so-called 'beginner's luck', huh?" said Rika.

"Well, 'beginner's luck' is the term for the relative peace and lack of strife during the first few years of every Shrine Maiden's service," said Genjii. "The power of the Yin-Yang Orb does not fully account for that. I suppose it is a factor, though."

"'Beginner's luck', huh?" murmured Reimu. "I was wondering about how quiet it was. That's happened with all of 'em, huh? All of us, I mean."

"Indeed," said Genjii. "I am not certain how or why this has happened. Unless a surprisingly altruistic youkai is behind it, but I wouldn't expect to find evidence of _that_."

"Mm-hmm," said Reimu with her mouth full. She swallowed. "Well, whatever it is, I still gotta defend the Village, and keep the Great Hakurei Barrier going."

"An excellent plan," said Genjii.

They ate in silence for another few minutes. An ice-fairy was apparently cheating by freezing another fairy's danmaku, but she maintained that the accuser had been the first one to cheat by using danmaku in the first place. It quickly degenerated into calling each other "stupid" over and over again.

"Y'know, sometimes I try to see the Barrier," said Rika, gazing at the sky.

"I think everyone does that," said Reimu. "It's just invisible, though, I think. Unless ... that's what it looks like to begin with?"

"No, it is quite invisible," said Genjii, who was older than the Great Hakurei Barrier itself.

"Right," said Reimu. "Even I can't do more than just ... feel how the whole thing is doing."

"How _is_ the barrier doing?" Rika asked.

Reimu frowned, looking up at the sky. "It's not really as strong as it could be, actually," she said. "But that's just cuz I'm new at all this, it's not _bad_ or anything. It's gonna get stronger as I get better at dealing with it." She gestured with her chopsticks. "It's not in danger or anything, I won't just let the Barrier _collapse_."

"Mmph." Rika nearly choked on her rice, giggling. "Yeah, I wouldn't want to be in Gensokyo if _that_ happened. But I guess I mean, most of the time, I just wonder what's on the other side." She looked over to the west, towards where Youkai Mountain was visible over the trees. "They say there's a whole world out there, and everyone's heard of people accidentally coming in from outside, but ... honestly, I can't really wrap my head around that. Gensokyo's a pretty big world, isn't it?"

"Maybe," said Reimu. "Before ... before Chiyo took me in, I kind of felt like the Human Village was big enough for a whole world for me."

"The Outside World is as large compared to Gensokyo," said Genjii, "as the Human Village is to a single human." He hesitated. "Actually, perhaps the scale would be more comparable to the entirety of Gensokyo versus a human? And ... perhaps even that is too small ..."

Rika chuckled. "Well, that puts _my_ point of view in perspective, huh?"

The fairies had decided to settle their quarrel with an all out danmaku brawl, and the north end of the field was soon lit up by multicolored lights. The sounds of battle, jingling, and occasionally the sound of ice shattering echoed through the field.

"From what I gather from the handful of Outsiders I've spoken to, the Outside World has changed considerably," said Genjii. "Even the cities themselves might be wholly unrecognizable as such." He shook his head. "I cannot describe it in clearer terms, being that I have been in Gensokyo for most of the Great Hakurei Barrier's existence. I don't imagine that we shall find out, so long as the Barrier holds."

"Haha, nope." Reimu gazed at the sky. "Still, it's ... there's a _bunch_ of weird things about the Barrier, really. One time, right before they officially made me the Hakurei Miko, I walked into the woods behind the Shrine, and I just kept going and going and going, but the trees never ended. Pretty soon, I thought it looked —"

She was interrupted by a loud twinkling pop, as the ice-fairy took one too many hits and vanished in a puff of smoke and glitter. This tended to happen in fights involving fairies; fortunately, death didn't last quite as long for them as it did with humans.

"Pretty soon," Reimu continued, "it looked like I'd passed the same spot a whole bunch of times, even though I was going in a straight line. Then I heard Gramps calling me, and I turned around, and I was right back at the Shrine."

"Okay, that's _really_ weird," said Rika.

"Yeah, you're telling me," said Reimu. "Maybe I'll try it some other time, see if I can figure out anything now that I'm the Shrine Maiden."

"Yes, nearly every Shrine Maiden has attempted that, and each reported a different sensation," said Genjii. "Perhaps I would know more if I learned the identity of its creator."

"You don't even know _that_?" said Rika.

"I was not assigned by Heaven to serve the Hakurei Shrine until the death of Hakurei Sanna, and the ascension of Hakurei Yonmi, the fourth Shrine Maiden," said Genjii. "By that time, the Barrier had existed for more than two years, and Konngara, the goddess of the Shrine, has never answered my questions on the subject."

Reimu chewed and swallowed, and looked back in the direction they'd come. "What's up with her, anyway?" she said. "The Village Elders almost couldn't get the Yin-Yang Orb to recognize me, and I can't even sense her. I mean, of _course_ I can always feel the, y'know, the divine power in the Shrine, but I can't ... _sense_ her sense her."

"I'm afraid the answer is the same as it always has been." Genjii followed her gaze, looking troubled. "One afternoon, Lady Konngara demanifested in anger following a quarrel with Miss Chiyo, about a year before she took you in. That was seven years ago," he added for Rika's benefit, "and Lady Konngara has simply not reappeared since then. In the worst case scenario, Lady Konngara may have ... starved, for lack of a better term, due to a lack of faith from anyone other than the Shrine Maiden."

"People not believing in her, you mean?" said Rika. "I mean, _I_ sure believe in gods, like, I actually met the harvest goddess Aki Minoriko a couple of years ago ..."

"Faith in a god does not mean merely acknowledging their existence," said Genjii. "Worship, devotion, engaging in celebrations with your god, or even praying in thanks ... Such things are as food and water to a deity. Gods are, quite literally, born from and shaped by faith, just as youkai are born from and shaped by human fears."

Reimu frowned. "What, am I not allowed to be afraid in order to fight youkai?"

"Of course you're allowed to be afraid," said Genjii. "The effect of a single human's immediate emotional state is much to small to make any difference. To both youkai and gods, for that matter. The process happens over the course of days at the absolute quickest, with a great many humans. But your ofuda and the Yin-Yang Orb will be sufficient for individual battles."

"Okay," said Reimu. She finished off her fish, and focused on what was left of her rice and vegetables.

The puff of smoke happened in reverse, and the ice-fairy rematerialized, looking confused and dizzy for a moment. Then she started screaming and yelling at the few remaining fairies that hadn't wandered off in boredom in the meantime.

"What was she like?" asked Rika. "Sorry, I kind of feel like I'm spending this whole time asking questions, it's just ... I just kind of need to distract myself, haha ..."

"That's quite all right," said Genjii. "There is little to say, however. Lady Konngara was an imposing swordswoman, and she was one of the deities who presided over the former Hell of Blazing Fires before it was shut down. When the Hakurei Shrine was built, she was enshrined as its god." He looked pensive. "She was ... quite devoted to the Shrine and its Shrine Maidens, and to what followers she had."

Reimu realized that he was talking about Konngara in exactly the same way people tended to talk about Chiyo. "Well I'm gonna try to get as much faith as I can to bring her back!" she said. "Okay, look, maybe we can set up a branch shrine at the Village, definitely put up a couple of hokora around there ..."

Genjii seemed surprised, but then he chuckled. "Of course," he said. "I was being foolish." He sighed. "I mourned for Hakurei Chiyo, but ... there _is_ hope that Lady Konngara shall return. As long as the Shrine Maiden of Hakurei lives, and the Shrine still stands, there —"

There was a sudden silence, except for sound of the ice fairy's declarations of vengeance.

"Well, it ... shouldn't make ... _that_ much of a difference, as long as it is rebuilt quickly," Genjii said hurriedly.

"You know what, I'm not really feeling all that hungry," said Rika. She quickly closed up her bento box and handed it to Reimu. "How about we just, uh, let's just get going."

"Yeah," said Reimu, cramming the bento boxes and chopsticks into her satchel. She climbed onto Genjii's back, and glanced towards the north end of the field. "Here's hoping we do better than that fairy."

"It would be wise to prepare for danger no matter what happens," said Genjii. "We shall have more than fairies to worry about soon enough."


	3. Chapter 3: Trail Sign

**Content warnings for this chapter:** Canon levels of danmaku-violence, one slightly stronger cussword than usual.

* * *

 **Chapter 3: Trail Sign**

Flying at a brisk pace, it only took about ten more minutes before they passed over the crest of a hill and found themselves at their destination.

Wide green and golden farmlands stretched out in front of them, all surrounded by a four-meter white brick wall. There were roads and small houses scattered all over it, all in a late-nineteenth-century Japanese design. In the exact center of the region, more than a dozen kilometers away from the outer wall, there was a settlement large enough to qualify as a small town.

The Human Village. The one place in Gensokyo where humans were guaranteed to be safe from youkai.

Or rather, where they _should_ have been safe. Reimu gripped her gohei more tightly. "Ugh ..."

"You okay?" asked Rika.

Reimu shook her head. "It's ... you should've been _safe_ here!" she blurted out. "I just ... I wanna make someone _pay!_ It's like, they broke some kind of rules or something!"

"Indeed," said Genjii gravely. "The destruction of the Shrine, much less a direct assault on a human this close to the Village wall, is certainly a crime worthy of extermination."

They made their way southward towards the Human Village's eastern gate, just under a kilometer away. Under most circumstances, it was considered rude to fly over the Human Village limits, even if it was quicker (and even if you were literally the Hakurei Shrine Maiden on official youkai-extermination business). The gate was wide enough for a whole crowd to walk through, and there were was a guard shack just inside.

"Well, here comes Meira," said Rika. A purple-haired young woman in a red and white kimono had risen off the ground by the gate.

"That's Miyamoto Meira?" said Genjii. "She was one of the other candidates for the Hakurei Shrine Maiden. She had just awakened the power to wield any close-quarters weapon as if she was an expert."

Reimu tried to figure out if there _were_ any situations where a sword would be more useful than danmaku. "She still probably would've gotten a lot of mileage out of the Yin-Yang Orb," she said.

"Well, regardless, it's good to see that she is still putting her abilities to good use," Genjii said diplomatically.

"Yeahhhh," said Rika. "I am _so_ not looking forward to this ..."

As Meira drew nearer, Reimu saw that she seemed to be a few years younger than Rika. She realized that Meira didn't exactly have a friendly expression, and she also had one hand on the handle of a sword at her hip, ready to draw.

"Hang on, where's her Defense Force armband?" said Rika.

"Uh ... Rika," said Reimu, "I ... don't think she's here to greet us ..."

"Wha— oh, crap," said Rika, tensing up. "Not her, too, of all people!"

Meira was only fifty or so meters away at that point. Reimu raised her gohei, and split the Yin-Yang Orb into four in a close orbit around her. It was more of a strain than just two, but Reimu had a feeling she was going to need it. In response, Meira drew her katana, held it out to the side, and charged forward at top speed, her blade leaving a glowing white trail of light.

Rika screamed and dodged wildly over the trail, while Reimu sent Genjii diving underneath it. Only a split second after she'd passed them, Meira sheathed her sword, and the trail promptly exploded into white orbs of danmaku.

Reimu carefully navigated through Meira's danmaku, moving in as close as she could. She noted that Rika was flying hurriedly over the wall towards the guard shack. Well, if _this_ wasn't a good time to ignore propriety, Reimu didn't know what was. Reimu closed in to within a half-dozen or so meters, and threw a curse-removal ofuda straight at Meira's head. It sailed through the air like a danmaku bullet, propelled by a small charge of extra supernatural energy she'd put into it.

Meira's sword flashed through the air. Two scraps of paper fluttered uselessly out of the sky.

Reimu's heart sank as Meira turned to face her. Reimu got a good look at her face for the first time —

— and promptly fell in love.

Well ... she became _infatuated_. It's a rather common mistake, dear reader.

"I am Miyamoto Meira," said Meira. She held her sword at the ready in both hands. "I have come to take the Hakurei."

"Wha ... what?" said Reimu. The combat instincts from the Yin-Yang Orb, which had _not_ become infatuated, were struggling to get her to stay out of range of the sword. "Is that a marriage prop—"

Meira dramatically pointed her sword straight at Reimu. "I shall ... wait, what did you say?"

Reimu's face was bright red. "Um. Marriage proposal ..."

Genjii let out an exasperated sigh. " _Please_ pay attention, Miss Hakurei."

"Your _power!_ " said Meira, blushing as well. She held her sword in a defensive position. "I was talking about the Hakurei _power!_ The Yin-Yang Orb!"

"Setting aside the fact that 'the Hakurei' is not an appropriate name, Miss Miyamoto," said Genjii, "you cannot just _take_ the Hakurei Yin-Yang Orb. It will only respond to the one who was chosen by the Village Elders and the Hakurei Shr—"

Meira pointed her sword at Reimu again. "That power should have been _mine_ ," she snarled. "It _must_ be mine!"

"Uh ... look," said Reimu nervously. She'd never had a crush on someone before, and didn't know what to do with it. "I don't want to hurt you, but ..."

Genjii let out a strangled noise. "Miss Hakurei, the curse!"

Reimu blinked, and managed to tear her eyes away from Meira's face, in favor of focusing on her supernatural senses. She could feel the same kind of dark presence she'd sensed around Rika. "Oh! Right, Gramps, I see it!"

"What ...?" Meira suddenly looked exactly as confused as Rika had, too. It seemed that preventing the victim from noticing they were cursed was a standard part of it.

Reimu was furious. Even more than she'd been with the threat to the Human Village, in fact. "I don't know what that ghost-woman told you to get you to do this, Meira," she said, "but I do know one thing! I'm gonna free you from that curse, and then I'm going to _destroy_ that ghost for harming such a pretty woman!" Genjii snorted.

Meira blinked a few more times. "Uh ... I ..." Her eyes became more and more unfocused.

A small voice inside Reimu thought, _I can exploit that._

She had Genjii charge forward, holding out a curse-removal ofuda, while shouting, _"You've been cursed and it's messing with your head and it —"_

But it seemed that the curse-girl had thought of that, too. Meira dodged to the side, her face completely blank as she swung her sword. Reimu shrieked and made a sharp turn out of the way, and nearly fell off Genjii's back. Reimu found that the ofuda had been cut in half right above her fingers. "Oh _jeez_ ..."

Meira opened and closed her mouth a few times. "Shut _up!"_ she exclaimed finally. "The Yin-Yang Orb _will be MIIIINE! ! !"_

"I wish Miss Hara was still here so that I could ask her if Miss Miyamoto is always this dramatic," muttered Genjii.

"I could _hear_ the multiple exclamation marks," Reimu said weakly. "Though, wasn't Rika kinda like this?"

Meira growled, and held her katana horizontally. "Trail Sign!" she said. There was the hissing roar of an activated Spell Card, and a black and pinkish-purple aura surrounded her. She charged forward, her katana once again leaving a glowing white trail.

Reimu dodged back out of her way and sent a burst of ofuda-bullets after her, but Meira abruptly zipped away at a right angle from her original course, leaving a second trail. She sheathed her katana, and both trails exploded into orbs again.

Reimu did her best to dodge and weave through the thick pattern, getting a feel for it as the bullets flew around her. She noticed that they always moved in a simple path directly away from their source, though this didn't actually help much because there were so _many_ of them. She made it through to the other side and paused to catch her breath, but Meira had already started another charge. Reimu fired a burst of ofuda danmaku ahead, anticipating Meira's change in direction, but this time Meira's new course was straight _up_. Reimu groaned, and pulled back slightly. "Gramps, can you take over dodging for a second?" she asked, as Meira sheathed her sword and the trails exploded again.

"I'm afraid not, Miss Hakurei," said Genjii. "Argh!" He stumbled in midair as a bullet grazed him.

"Ahh!" Reimu staggered, and quickly drew back. "Seriously, you can't!?"

"I have never developed the skill on my own," said Genjii, speaking as rapidly as possible. "I can only dodge when guided by the Shrine Maiden."

"Crap." Reimu pulled off to the side and downward as Meira began her third zigzag, but this wasn't as much of an improvement as it had been with Rika; the bullets were exploding in all directions, not just angled upward. "Ugh, fine, okay. I can ... _probably_ do this without getting hit ... Fantasy Seal in stun-human mode ..."

She closed her eyes, trying to navigate through the danmaku her magical senses alone, but even with her supernatural senses, it still felt in her gut like she couldn't see what she was doing. She reopened her eyes just as Meira began another zigzag. This time, Meira made a second right-angle turn, leaving three trails in midair — with the third charge straight towards Reimu.

Reimu yelped and swerved to the side. Frankly, she felt much more distracted than she had been with the Flower Tank; the sky was much thicker with danmaku than Reimu had ever seen before, much less as a participant. She held up her gohei, concentrating as she tried to activate her Spell Card, as the trails exploded into bullets and began flying straight towards her ...

"Miss Hakurei!" exclaimed Genjii. But at that moment, there was the familiar hissing roar as Reimu's red and white aura appeared, and the Yin-Yang Orbs split into seven and began spinning around her in a wide rainbow-colored arc. They also became insubstantial, since Reimu didn't actually want to hurt Meira. She used them defensively at first, trying to catch any bullets from Meira that she could.

It wasn't enough, though, and she nearly got hit with a bullet that slipped through. Desperately, Reimu started firing ofuda-bullets from the Yin-Yang Orbs, trying to focus as much energy as she could, but she quickly realized she could only fire from one Yin-Yang Orb at a time.

Meira snorted. "Weak." She dodged through Reimu's relatively simple pattern, occasionally slashing bullets away with her sword, before she started another triple-slash, trying to encircle Reimu and Genjii. Reimu stayed where she was and sent the Yin-Yang orbs in a wider orbit, trying to catch Meira with them, but Meira jumped out of the way at the last moment, detonating the trails a split second early _without_ sheathing her sword.

"Yikes!" Reimu sent Genjii careening straight forward out of the encirclement, faster than the bullets.

She flew right into one of Meira's bullets from behind.

It was like a punch to the gut from someone with a live electrical wire wrapped around their knuckles. There was a loud thunderclap as Fantasy Seal broke, and all but one of the Yin-Yang Orbs vanished. She heard a yelp from Genjii right in front of her as he collided with another bullet —

Right _in front_ of her.

She wasn't standing on Genjii's back anymore.

Reimu was falling.

She was _falling._ She was about thirty meters above the ground, and while she was facing up, she was fully aware that the earth was accelerating towards her from behind like a freight train.

Fortunately, she hadn't lost the use of the Yin-Yang orbs, and there was only one possibility if you found yourself in freefall: flight under your own power. She drew as much spiritual energy into herself as she could, and _pushed_ back against gravity.

Three quarters of the way to the ground, her speed began to slow dramatically, but she panicked when she realized that she hadn't stopped completely. She began to flail around with both her limbs and her powers, and she reached into herself and _twisted_.

The world suddenly seemed to have a white, pearlescent glow, and she slowed to a stop half a meter above the ground.

Then she lost her grip on whatever it was, and the glow faded. "Oh," she said.

A second later, she fell flat on her back. "Ack!"

Genjii, who had also fallen, was floating upside-down next to her. "Oh dear ... Miss Hakurei, what happened to your —"

But Reimu's attention was on the sky. "Uh-oh."

Meira flourished her sword and pointed it straight down at Reimu, still surrounded by the aura of her own Spell Card. Reimu tensed up to try to leap or roll out of the way, knowing full well that if Meira used danmaku, there wouldn't be any way for her to dodge.

There was the screech of danmaku from behind Meira, who whirled around and promptly found herself in the middle of a complex hexagonal pattern of lasers. The source was a woman with silver hair with blue streaks, wearing a multilayered cobalt-blue dress.

"Oh, good, Miss Kamishirasawa is here," said Genjii. He twisted around and landed on his feet.

"I didn't know Miss Keine could use danmaku," said Reimu, getting to her feet. Kamishirasawa Keine was a schoolteacher, historian, and youkai exterminator, and she was the one in charge of Reimu's education. She was ... well, Reimu knew she was half-youkai because it was her job as the Shrine Maiden to know that sort of thing, but she wasn't a threat, so it was impolite to talk about it.

Keine happened to glance down at Reimu at that moment, and she immediately redoubled her attacks, adding blue ofuda-bullets to the mix. There seemed to be ten times as many bullets as even Meira's Trail Sign.

Genjii peered at her. "Miss Hakurei, she's one of the heads of the Defense Force."

"I knew _that_ ," said Reimu. "It's just ... I've always just thought of her as being, y'know, a teacher."

Meira was clearly struggling to make her way through Keine's danmaku, and began a zigzag with only two trails.

Keine adjusted her pattern to try to hit Meira's new course. _"I won't forgive you if the Hakurei Shrine Maiden is dead!"_ she shouted.

"What!?" exclaimed Meira. "But I ... she ..."

"Gramps," said Reimu, climbing onto Genjii's shell, "could you remind me about this the next time I feel like slacking off on my homework?" She pulled out another anti-curse ofuda.

"No, this is clearly a ruse," said Genjii, rising off the ground. "Ms. Kamishirasawa looked down at us just a moment ago, did she not?"

Meira glanced down towards Reimu and Genjii, and almost immediately collided with a laser, dropping her sword. There was a thunderclap, her aura and bullets faded, and she began to plummet. Keine promptly flew down after her at top speed, and caught her in a bear hug.

Reimu didn't waste any time. She flew Genjii up to meet them, and hurriedly slapped the ofuda onto the side of Meira's head. Meira twitched and went still.

"Careful!" said Keine. They descended back to the ground.

Meira pulled the spent ofuda off her head and stared at it for a moment. Then her eyes widened and she looked up at Reimu. "Oh, shit, are you okay!?"

"Language," murmured Keine automatically.

"I'm, uh, I'm fine, Meira," said Reimu. She ran a hand over her stomach where the bullet had hit her. It was still slightly tender, but there didn't seem to be any bleeding or any actual injury. "I don't even feel anything anymore where you hit me," she lied.

"But you ..." She looked from Reimu to Keine in confusion.

"I caught myself before I hit the ground," said Reimu, smiling reassuringly. "I can fly a _little_ ..."

"Sorry," said Keine. "I needed to trick you into looking away for a second."

Rika flew over towards them from the direction of the gate. "Oh, good! Nobody's too hurt?" She was accompanied by three police officers, two men and an auburn-haired woman in matching uniforms with buttons, epaulets, and stern expressions.

"Nope, everyone seems fine!" said Reimu. Rika gave her a funny look.

"Yeah," muttered Meira, before Reimu could ask what _that_ was about. "Just as well, too."

"What happened?" asked the policewoman. The two policemen hung back, near enough that they could see and hear what was going on without necessarily being within attack-range. "Miss Hara just rushed in and announced that Miss Miyamoto had been cursed and was fighting the Shrine Maiden. Then on the way here, Miss Kamishirasawa just bolted ahead of us."

"No word on who did it yet, Kotohime," said Keine. "Ms. Hakurei managed to get rid of the curse, although I had to rescue her from Meira's Trail Sign."

Oh, right, now Reimu recognized her: Kawaji Kotohime ran the Defense Force with Keine. "Aha, yeah," said Reimu. "So much for 'beginner's luck', huh?"

"Well, you're alive and unhurt," said Kotohime. "I'd say that still counts."

"Sorry," mumbled Meira. Reimu put a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"Did you happen to see the culprit, Miss Miyamoto?" asked Genjii.

"Y-yeah, it was this red-haired youkai named Noroiko, and a green-haired ghost named Mima," said Meira. "Jumped me while I was on patrol. Noroiko had the kanji for 'curse' as her danmaku, and it ... cursed me. I caught their names while they were giving me orders. Mima said not to tell me where I should take the Yin-Yang Orb, in case I got beaten."

"Never heard of 'em," said Reimu. "Wait, 'Noroiko'? Her name is literally just 'Curse Girl'?"

"Apparently," said Meira. Then she frowned, and looked up at Kotohime. "Also, they had a girl with them who I could _swear_ was Kirisame Marisa dressed as a purple witch, except she had red hair."

"Who's that?" said Reimu. "Wait ... That runaway who went missing a month ago!?"

"Yeah," said Meira.

Kotohime looked grim. "Mr. Kirisame was just about done making preparations for the funeral," she said. "I mean, Marisa has been gone for a _month_ , we feared the worst."

Reimu huffed. "Yeah, well, if she turned into a youkai, that'd _be_ the worst!" she said.

"How did they hit you, Meira?" said Keine. "You're one of our best fighters."

Meira shook her head. "No idea," she said. "I dodged all of her bullets, and then ... one of them just suddenly hit me from behind." She shook her head again, looking up at Reimu. "I'm ... I'm sorry." There were tears in her eyes.

Reimu softened. She still wasn't sure what to do with this sudden case of infatuation, but it was obvious what she should do just then. "Don't worry about it," she said, giving Meira a hug. "It's like I told Rika, you weren't —"

"Did your hair change color?" Meira suddenly asked.

"What?" Reimu pulled a lock of hair into her field of vision.

It was a much darker shade of purple than before. _"What!?"_

"Oh, right," said Genjii. "Miss Hakurei, what did you _do_?"

"I ... I don't know!" said Reimu. "I just sort of ... twisted something with my power when I was falling ..."

"Was that 'something' by any chance a boundary?" Genjii said sternly.

"Maybe? I don't know!" said Reimu, who was slightly panicking now. "What does that have to do with my hair!?"

"Calm," said Genjii, backing off slightly.

"Ahhh ..." Reimu shook her head, and took a few deep breaths.

"For humans native to Japan, the natural hair colors are black and brown," said Genjii. "And shades of gray and white, once you grow older. Any other color is a signifier of some form of magic in your blood."

"You mean like Shrine Maiden potential?" said one of the policemen who was hanging back.

"No, I mean the powers of magicians, youkai, and fairies, in contrast to the sacred powers of the Shrine Maiden," said Genjii. "An affinity for witchcraft, a special ability such as Ms. Miyamoto's swordplay, or youkai blood, that sort of thing. The Shrine Maiden's boundary-powers appear to 'purify' this effect over time, as the boundary between 'sacred' and 'unholy' becomes reinforced."

"Oh." Reimu peered down at her hair in her hand. "It ... kinda seems like it's changing back to the shade it was before ..."

"I bet that explains Marisa's hair," said Rika. "I know her father wasn't letting her learn magic. If that 'Mima' was training her to be a witch ..." She shrugged.

"What did you mean by 'boundary powers'?" asked the other policeman.

"The the Shrine Maidens have an affinity for boundaries and barriers," said Meira. "It's sort of one of the sources of the powers. Stuff like, the boundary between night and day, which lets them be just as effective at night as in the day, even though nighttime is the domain of youkai. And, I mean, the Great Hakurei Barrier, obviously."

"What?" said Reimu, surprised that Meira knew all this.

Meira grinned weakly. "Hey, _I_ was almost the Shrine Maiden," she said. "I did my homework."

"Hmm." Keine walked over to where Reimu had landed. "I can't sense anything out of the ordinary."

"Me neither," said Kotohime. "What about you, Ms. Hakurei?"

"Nope, seems good to me," said Reimu.

Kotohime nodded. "I suppose it must have just been a power-boost that helped you fly." She turned to look straight at Reimu. "So, what were saying you told Ms. Hara about the curse?"

"What?" Reimu looked at Rika, who was now looking slightly panicked. "Oh, right. Well, uh ... you see ..."

* * *

Mima grimaced at the crystal ball. "And so Miyamoto Meira was schooled by the were-beast, and now the policewoman's on the case," she said. "Y'know, I'm pretty sure we can just start counting down the number of insiders we have. Fifteen, fourteen, thirteen ..."

"Yeah, right," said Marisa distractedly.

Mima looked at her apprentice. "What's up?"

"Huh? Oh." Marisa shrugged, looking curious and slightly uncomfortable. "Um. Just thinkin' about the Shrine Maiden bein' all ... head over heels for Meira, 'n' all ..."

Mima smiled. "You didn't know that girls could fall in love with other girls?" she said. "Or at least become infatuated, which is a common mistake to make ..."

Marisa laughed. "I mean, well, yeah," she said. "I think it'd explain a lot about me, though, right?"

"It would?" Mima raised her eyebrows. "Well, you'd know about that better than I would, but congratulations on discovering a new facet about your own life."

"Haha, thanks, boss." Marisa shook her head, grinning. "Anyway, the other thing is ... when Noroiko gets back from orderin' the other cursed Defenders, I'm gonna have to ask her why the hell she was makin' Meira and Rika act so ... _dramatic_."

Mima placed a hand on Marisa's shoulder, and gravely said, "Marisa, as my apprentice, you must always ask questions if there's something you don't understand, and ..." She stopped. "You know what, I'll just skip to the punchline: that's the best godsdamn question you've ever asked."

Marisa giggled. "Yeah, I mean, I know she got Rika's JoJo pose from, uh, JoJo," she said, "but, I mean, _why!?_ "

Mima glanced out the door. "Come to think of it, I'm pretty sure Trail Sign didn't originally involve sheathing her sword every time she detonated the —"

Noroiko frantically slammed the door open and rushed in. "Uh, guys!"

Mima turned. "What is it?" Then her eyes narrowed as she saw who was behind Noroiko. "Oh."

"Greetings, vengeful spirit," said the kitsune they'd seen at the Hakurei Shrine. She had an expression which could only be described as _completely unamused_. She turned to Marisa, and added, "We are Yakumo Ran, the shikigami and representative of our master, the youkai sage Yakumo Yukari, Youkai of Boundaries."

"Wait, you're a _shikigami_?" said Marisa. She stood up from the table. "This Yakumo Yukari's got a _nine-tailed fox_ as a _familiar!?"_

Mima discreetly moved herself between Ran and Marisa. "To what do I owe the complete lack of anything resembling pleasure, honor, or occasion?" she asked.

Ran narrowed her eyes. "Our master is _extremely_ displeased with your actions the past several days."

"My most sincerely sarcastic apologies," said Mima. "Maybe she'd be less displeased with things if she took up a seven hundred ninety- _eighth_ hobby?"

Ran marched right up to Mima. "You know _precisely_ why neither the Great Hakurei Barrier nor Gensokyo itself can afford to lose two Shrine Maidens in as many years," she said, looking Mima straight in the eye. "You also know precisely why the Human Village and its defenders are strictly off-limits. If a single Human Villager dies as a result of this crisis, or if the Fourteenth Hakurei Shrine Maiden becomes unable to function as such, _or_ loses the use of the Hakurei Yin-Yang Orb, _our master shall be your reaper_." She held Mima's gaze for several seconds. "Have we made ourself clear?"

"Perfectly," said Mima.

"Me too," said Noroiko, in high-pitched voice.

"Um," said Marisa.

Ran glanced at Marisa, and her threatening posture faded. "The life of your apprentice shall be spared, being that she is a Human Villager," she said. "However, she is unlikely to retain the use of her magic. In any case, you must not take this as any sort of encouragement to continue this _nonsense_."

"Tell your master her concerns have been successfully raised," said Mima. "But give us time to think about whether I'll lower them back down again."

"Oh for ..." Noroiko shook her head and headed for the door. " _You_ jokers can do whatever you want. _I'm_ gonna go command all of the defenders to go to ground, and not use anything that even _looks_ like lethal force."

Ran bowed to Noroiko and Mima in turn. "We believe our master will consider that to be acceptable," she said. "But obviously, not enough that you will no longer be watched. As you were then, Miss Mima, Miss Noroiko, Miss Marisa. Our next stop is to pay a visit to the Shrine Maiden."

"What, you're just letting her push you around?" said Marisa, as Ran apparently turned to follow Noroiko out the door.

Then a portal opened in front of Ran, and Marisa stumbled backwards and knocked over her chair when she saw what was on the other side. Ran slipped through without a word, and the portal closed.

"Okay, this just raises _more_ questions," Mima murmured. "If the Shrine Maiden died, couldn't Yakumo just ...?"

"What?" said Marisa.

Mima turned. Now wasn't the time for Marisa to get _that_ particular revelation. "Grandstanding notwithstanding, Marisa, could you do me a favor?" she said. " _Never_ pick a fight with Yakumo Yukari unless you develop a taste for getting beaten." She shook her head. "If I was betting everything I could imagine on the outcome of a fight which consisted of Yakumo Yukari against just about anyone she sincerely wanted to defeat, well ... let's just say my money wouldn't be on her enemy."

Marisa stood back up, frowning. "Yikes, boss," she said, picking up the chair.

Mima smiled. "Don't worry, we can still salvage a victory out of all this," she said. "We're just going to have to lower our standards."

"Whatever you say," said Marisa.

Mima couldn't help but notice that she didn't sound remotely sincere or enthusiastic anymore.

* * *

 **Author notes:** The geography probably _the_ vaguest part of canon, but I think it's safe to say that the Human Village is both close enough to the Hakurei Shrine that you could just walk there (as evidenced by the number of ordinary humans who have done so in canon), and large enough to have its own a self-sustaining population and economy. Extrapolating from this for my own story: food doesn't grow in market stalls, hence why most of the actual acreage of the Human Village's territory is taken up by farmland (which I've never actually seen depicted). It's mostly grain, rice, and various livestock, but you can find a little bit of everything in the Village's market.

"The Human Village territory/limits" refers to the entire settlement, meaning village and the surrounding farmland. Basically everything within the outer wall. "The Human Village proper" means the village itself.

Also: this won't come up anywhere else, but a few volumes of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure have made it through the Barrier and into Marisa's hands. At absolute minimum, she had to have seen the bit with the "how many slices of bread have you eaten" exchange.


	4. Chapter 4: Offense and Defense

**Chapter 4: Offense and Defense**

Reimu explained the situation to Keine and Kotohime, Keine and Kotohime reported to the Council of Elders, and the Council declared a state of emergency; if the Human Village's live-in defenders had been mind-controlled into doing evil, who knew _what_ would happen. Broadly speaking, a state of emergency mostly just meant that Kotohime and Keine didn't need to ask the Council's permission before moving around Defenders and police officers, or for rushing out of the Village to chase down Mima if they figured out where the hell she was. It also meant you were allowed to fly over the Village, which Reimu thought was an improvement.

Keine had then gone off to "hide the Village's history," which Reimu didn't quite understand, but the entire Human Village territory was now enclosed in a strange-looking reddish barrier, which apparently rendered everything inside it invisible. Reimu had been dispatched to investigate Rika's workshop, which was within Keine's barrier, while Keine and Kotohime had gone to chase down any Defenders who mysteriously failed to respond to the general summons.

The Youkai-Extermination Defense Force had been founded about twenty years ago. Broadly speaking, it was mostly a formalization of a practice which had more-or-less already existed, insofar as the original settlers had _all_ been youkai exterminators. The new form of the Defense Force included things like rules and regulations, mentorship and training for those who were too young but who had useful powers, and a whole network of support and backing. They weren't as powerful or skilled as the Shrine Maiden — the best among them was Keine, and even she couldn't have taken Hakurei Chiyo in a fight — but they were closer at hand, and they could deal with fairies and weaker youkai without any trouble, so that the Shrine Maiden didn't need to be everywhere at once. Reimu tried not to feel bitter at the fact that they also tended to get fewer injuries than the average Hakurei Miko, and were thus longer-lived.

The problem was that it was mostly volunteer work, and a given Defender invariably needed to juggle it with another job. This particular wrinkle in the system went all the way up to its leaders, Kamishirasawa Keine, who was a schoolteacher and historian, and Kawaji Kotohime, a medium-ranking officer of the Human Village Peacekeeping Department. Regardless, a mere fifteen years later, the Defense Force was now considered one of the fixtures of the Human Village. The building which housed their headquarters was near the center of the village, in a squat building next to the main police office.

At 7:30 PM, by prior arrangement, Reimu returned to the Defense Force HQ on Genjii's back. The sun had already mostly set by that point. Keine and Kotohime were standing by the front door, each carrying a magic-powered lantern. Kotohime had changed into red and purple robes; Keine was now wearing a cobalt-blue hat which looked like a witch had started transforming a bento box into a miniature single-tiered pagoda, gotten distracted partway through, and then topped it off with a red bow. Both of them wore white armbands bearing the kanji for "Youkai-Extermination Defense Force" wrapped around a red circle.

"Welcome back," said Kotohime. "Find anything?"

"Uh, the charms around the workshop got zapped by danmaku," said Reimu, as she followed them inside. She'd mostly been lighting the way with the Yin-Yang Orb.

Genjii shrank down to a smaller size so that he could fit through the doorway. "I have surmised that young Miss Kirisame must have been the one to neutralize them," he said. "It was difficult to read the remains of the ofuda, but I believe their combined strength should have resisted a direct assault from a youkai. This probably means that Miss Kirisame was coerced or persuaded to work for Mima, rather than controlled by Noroiko's curse."

"I think I can guess how they persuaded her," said Kotohime. They went into a small meeting room, and Kotohime sent individual danmaku bullets to light the paper lamps dotted around the room.

"Yeah, Rika said her dad wasn't letting her learn magic, right?" said Reimu. "And she's a witch now, so Mima must've promised to teach her." They each took a chair, and Reimu set down the Yin-Yang Orb in the chair next to her. Genjii simply floated up to hover above the Yin-Yang Orb.

"Did you find anything else?" asked Kotohime.

"Nope," said Reimu. "No residue, other curses, anything like that. I did a little purification ritual and blessed the workshop anyway, though."

"And no clues about where the three of 'em could've gone, I'm guessing," said Kotohime.

"I'm afraid not," said Genjii.

Keine nodded. "I tried to look into the census and extermination records to see if Mima was originally a Villager, but I haven't been able to find anything," she said. "It's hard to search for anything when all you have is a single given name. The good news is that we've found three other Defenders who'd been cursed by Noroiko. We're having the police and Defenders making a sweep through the village to see if we can find any others."

"Yeah, it's about one Defender to five police," said Kotohime. "They'll let us know if they find someone they can't beat. Oh, and I put out the word about your god. Got a feeling I know who people are gonna be praying to tonight."

"Oh, good," said Reimu.

"All of the cursed Defenders had essentially the same story," said Keine. "Noroiko attacked them near the edge of the Village, they were inexplicably hit by one of Noroiko's 'curse' bullets, and Mima gave them orders to attack you for varyingly nonsensical reasons. We sent them all home, by the way," she added. "Their families had ... various reactions, but the ones who were angry mostly just directed it at the attackers."

Reimu nodded. She hadn't though to ask Rika about family; setting aside the fact that it wasn't an actual thing for Reimu herself, well ... it didn't happen _that_ much, because the Human Village was safe in and of itself, but in Gensokyo, it was _just_ common enough to lose a sibling, or a child, or for children to live with uncles and grandparents, that it was impolite to inquire too deeply about family matters. Too much of a risk of opening wounds, both old and new.

"I guess we're left with chasing down the enemy, then," said Kotohime. "If Mima's _just_ a ghost, even Rika could dispel her, but I kind of feel like we're dealing with something more than that."

"Oh, yeah, that's what my intuition is saying, too," said Reimu. "She might even be a vengeful spirit!"

Kotohime nodded. "Is that something you can deal with yourself? Vengeful spirits are kind of above the Defense Force's pay grade, as it were."

"Um ... kind of?" said Reimu, slightly backpedaling. "I mean ... I could probably exterminate Noroiko, but my training hasn't gotten to dealing with vengeful spirits and other, uh, super-powerful ghosts. I mean, besides just keeping them out of places with stuff that works on pretty much _all_ youkai."

"Could you seal her away?" asked Keine.

"Yes," said Reimu firmly.

"Then I guess that leaves the question of how we're going to find them," said Keine.

They all sat in thoughtful silence for a moment. "What do we know about young Miss Kirisame?" asked Genjii.

"Well, that's as good a starting point as anything else," said Kotohime. "Let's see ... she started running away in November or so, which in retrospect is probably when Mima started teaching her magic ... but until her _complete_ disappearance last month, she was always brought home within a few days by Mr. Morichika Rinnosuke, a friend of the family. Um ... she lives in the top floor apartment of the Kirisame Shop on Second Market Street with her parents, Mr. Kirisame Nakamoto and Mrs. Kirisame Ayumu ..."

"She was an A-student until she started running away," added Keine, "and she had the gift of magic, potentially fairly powerful, but, well, you know the rest. According to Mr. Morichika, her father has had some sort of unexplained grudge against magic and youkai since he was young."

Reimu blinked. "Does Mr. Kirisame know ... about ..." She gestured to Keine.

"Both of her parents know I'm half youkai," said Keine. "Nakamoto doesn't have a problem with us, as long as we're useful to the village, or once he gets to know us — Mr. Morichika is also half youkai, for the record. But people like Mr. Kirisame are the reason why I don't advertise myself, yes." She shrugged. "Not that I can really blame them."

"Was there any pattern to where Mr. Morichika found Miss Marisa?" said Genjii.

"We thought of that months ago, actually," said Kotohime. "Unfortunately, she usually ended up going straight over to Mr. Morichika's shop Kourindou. The rest of the time, she was found wandering the Village."

"Where is Kourindou?" said Genjii.

"Over by the Forest of Magic," said Keine. The Forest of Magic was a few tens of kilometers southwest of the Village; as its name implied, it was a forest, which was filled with magic.

Reimu frowned. "What if they're _in_ the Forest of Magic?"

There was a pause. "Right, we're switching gears towards finding someone _else_ ," said Kotohime wryly. "We never investigated too far in that direction because we always found Marisa in the end. Of course, the _other_ reason we never checked in there is because the Forest is pretty big and _kind of_ dangerous. It could take all night just to track them down, and that's if we don't wake up anything nasty in the process."

"Did anything in particular prompt that, Reimu?" asked Keine.

"Um ..." Reimu nervously glanced at the Yin-Yang Orb. "My ... intuition?"

"Well, that's a perfectly good source of information," said Kotohime. "Especially if it comes from the Yin-Yang Orb, I know you've got —"

There was a knock on the door, and a policeman poked his head in. "Excuse me, Miss Kawaji, but there's just been a sort of disturbance near the eastern gate."

Kotohime peered at him. "A _sort of_ disturbance?"

"Well ..." The officer shrugged. "According to the guards, a nine-tailed kitsune just appeared, walked into Ms. Kamishirasawa's barrier, and then called out that she had information for the Shrine Maiden. The guards said she appeared from, quote, 'a portal full of eyes', unquote."

"Oh dear," said Genjii. "Did she who she was?"

"Uh, yes," said the policeman, who seemed slightly unnerved at talking to a hovering tortoise in the middle of the meeting room. "She said she was called Yakumo Ran, and that she represented a youkai sage named Yakumo Yukari."

Genjii closed his eyes and sighed. "We had better go and see what she wants."

* * *

The crystal ball showed kilometers upon kilometers of empty fields.

"Any luck?" asked Noroiko.

Mima stared at the crystal ball, which showed a wide, empty field. "In spite of my most valiant efforts, the ongoing 'nothing' festival hasn't ended yet," she said. "I know Kamishirasawa's power is history-based, but beyond that I have no idea _what_ she's doing except that it's pretty fantastic."

"I thought your scrying spell was supposed to be fantastic, too!" said Noroiko petulantly.

"Which means that it's vulnerable to something lesser, but specialized," said Mima. Noroiko wasn't a good listener, but it didn't hurt to _try_ to explain something. She glanced over at Marisa, who'd gotten up and started pacing restlessly two minutes after the Village had vanished. "Even if I _did_ know what caused it, there's no guarantee that I could ... hang on."

At a gesture, the view zipped over eastward. Yakumo Ran was standing there, staring at the empty field with roughly the same befuddlement that Mima felt. She took a few tentative steps forward, looking around, then called out, _"To whom it may concern: we are Yakumo Ran, the shikigami and representative of our master, the —"_

Mima burst out laughing. "Well then!" she said.

"Oh, _jeez_ ," said Marisa.

"We're dead, aren't we?" said Noroiko, looking slightly terrified.

"I know I am," said Mima, without missing a beat. "But seriously, as I told said earlier, we just need to lower our standards."

 _"I will return once the Shrine Maiden arrives,"_ said Ran, and she disappeared through another gap.

Keine, Kotohime, Genjii, and Reimu flew back out to the eastern gate. Kotohime seemed to be standing vertically on a fluffy white cloud that had formed around her feet, and it glowed just bright enough that they could see around themselves. They were, Reimu realized, the best youkai exterminators in Gensokyo, all gathered together. Well ... she wasn't sure if Genjii counted, but still.

For that matter, Genjii had been nervous and silent the whole way. Hmm ...

Reimu drew in power from the yin-yang orbs and pulled a couple of anti-youkai ofuda from her satchel. She knew that kitsune gained an extra tail every century up to a maximum of nine, which meant that this "Yakumo Ran" was at least eight hundred years old. Youkai tended to grow stronger and more dangerous with age, and foxes in particular were a cut above the rest, with a wisdom and cunning that made each extra tail a signifier of much greater danger. They were loyal to a fault and quite reliable if you could somehow acquire this loyalty (and if you could stop them from doing things like "bringing you wealth" by stealing from your neighbors) ... but this one seemed to be loyal to a self-proclaimed youkai sage.

Kotohime glanced up at the waning gibbous moon, which was still distinctly visible through Keine's barrier. "Too bad this didn't happen on Monday," she said. "You probably could've caught every cursed Defender and then taken out Mima yourself before dinner."

"I suppose she must have timed it so that the moon wouldn't be full enough anymore," said Keine.

"Huh?" said Reimu.

"I'm a were-hakutaku, a beast of history," said Keine. She sounded uncomfortable. "I ... change, under the full moon, except for my face."

"Oh." Reimu tried to imagine it, but she didn't know what a "hakutaku" was supposed to look like to begin with.

They reached the guard shacks by the eastern gate, and policeman wearing a guard helmet stepped out. "Well, here we are," said Kotohime, descending down to a comfortable level for conversation. "Is the fox still here?"

"She went back through one of the ... portals," said the guard. He looked nervously out at the gate. "She said she was going to come back when the Shrine Maiden arrived," he added, nodding to Reimu.

"Hmm." Kotohime gazed out at the barrier.

"She walked into the barrier, but it looked like she had a barrier like yours wrapped around her," said the guard.

"Did it look like she could see anything?" said Keine.

"Not really," he said. "She mostly just looked perplexed."

"Then it was working, don't worry," said Keine. "She just saw an empty field."

Kotohime shrugged. "Well, I guess it can't be helped." She rose back up and moved towards the gate, and Reimu and Keine followed; Reimu split the Yin-Yang Orbs into four. A couple of other guards stepped out, watching from a safe distance.

From the inside, the barrier looked like a shifting wall of red-tinted glass, with strange shapes floating over it that Reimu realized looked like woodcuts, or the outlines of paintings, showing scenery in the Village territory. Kotohime flew through without hesitation, and it rippled like water.

Reimu flew through on Genjii's back. She could feel the presence of the barrier as it ran over her, but all sign of it vanished the instant she was on the other side. She glanced back, and just saw a wide open field, several dozen kilometers wide. Even the walls were gone. "Well, hiding the village is _amazing_ , Miss Keine!"

"Thank you," said Keine, expressionlessly.

And then a portal full of eyes opened in front of them.

There was just a horizontal slit in space, as if someone had run a pair of scissors several meters through the fabric of reality, revealing a dark void with dozens of eerie red eyes staring out. Three human-looking hands were grasping the edges from inside, seemingly pushing it open, but they slipped in and vanished after it was a couple of meters wide. It was tied off at both ends by a pair of cute pinkish-red bows.

Creepier than the appearance was the fact that Reimu could _feel_ a boundary being opened. She wasn't sure what kind of boundary it was; it wasn't as though there was a barrier in front of her, although Keine's ability raised the question of whether she _could_ know for sure. But it felt like _nothingness itself_ had opened.

"Dear gods," muttered Keine, who looked like she was currently in fight-or-flight mode.

"Well, that is ... certainly a portal full of eyes," said Kotohime. She summoned nine black pearlescent mines, and they began spinning around her at high speed.

Reimu drew the full power of the yin-yang orbs, trying to access her combat instincts and get any insights about the portal.

Nothing.

 _What?_ She tried again.

All she got this time was a bit of a strain, since she was already pulling at their maximum.

O ... kay, _why_ wasn't she getting any ideas or battle plans? Reimu tried turning her Yin-Yang-Orb-instincts to this question. Two hazy possibilities fizzled into her mind after a moment: either the other Shrine Maidens had all gotten used to these ... portals-full-of-eyes, to the point that they didn't see them as a threat in and of themselves ... or, more unsettlingly — and she couldn't _believe_ she was considering something more unsettling than _that_ — maybe the creator of that portal had some way of overriding her combat-instincts.

A woman with nine large fox-tails descended out of the portal. She wore white robes, and a white hat with two points roughly in the shape of a fox's ears. Her shoulder-length hair was the same shade of gold as the fur on her tails, and she had the golden-orange slitted eyes of a fox. She was standing perfectly vertical, with her hands clasped in front of her, hidden in loose sleeves.

Let's see ... kitsune, obviously. If it came to a fight, a few options specific to foxes sprang into Reimu's mind, and of course as a youkai, this woman would be weak against a lot of the rest of a Shrine Maiden's arsenal. However, she hadn't actually done anything threatening yet. Reimu noted that her instincts were working just fine with the fox, despite not reacting to the portal.

"Greetings, shrine maiden," said the kitsune, with a serene but businesslike tone of voice. The portal closed behind her and vanished, as if it had never been there. "We are Yakumo Ran, the shikigami and representative of our master, the youkai sage Yakumo Yukari, Youkai of Boundaries."

The countermeasure that popped up in Reimu's head for a "youkai of boundaries" was to talk it out rather than fighting directly, or failing that, to be ready for literally anything and preferably to run like hell, which was _not_ encouraging — hang on, _boundaries_? As in, that one source of the Shrine Maiden's power!? What did — "Wait wait wait wait, you're a _shikigami!?"_ she blurted out. "That's just ... no. Nine-tailed foxes are, like, crazy-powerful, you can't just _make_ one into a familiar!"

"Reimu," said Keine, in a warning tone of voice.

"Well, you're correct as far as that goes," said Ran. "Lady Yukari acquired our services through persuasion, with no deception or force on her part."

 _"How?"_ exclaimed Reimu, though she wasn't entirely sure she wanted to know.

"Shenanigans," said Ran.

Reimu laughed helplessly. A portal had appeared which was the scariest thing Reimu had seen for at least three separate reasons, and out had popped a nine-tailed fox who was someone's _familiar_ , and who had just said "shenanigans" in a calm, professional tone of voice. You could either laugh, cry, or run away, and options 2 and 3 weren't on the menu for the Hakurei Shrine Maiden.

"I suppose one of us ought to tell you that's not an answer," Kotohime said mildly. Her mines were still spinning around her.

"I'm afraid we cannot divulge information regarding our nature as a shikigami," said Ran.

"Even why you're calling yourself 'we'?" said Reimu.

Ran showed the faintest hint of a smile. " _Especially_ why we're calling ourself 'we'," she said. "But our purpose here, at the command of our master, is to divulge information regarding the crisis you face."

"Really, now?" said Kotohime, cocking her head and putting her hands on her hips. "What does a 'youkai sage' care about a crisis caused by another youkai?"

"Lady Yukari's reasons are entirely born of self-interest, we assure you," Ran replied. "We shall speak plainly: the Great Hakurei Barrier has grown weak. It is considerably weaker than it was immediately before the death of the Thirteenth Shrine Maiden of Hakurei, and only slightly stronger than it was at the time of the inauguration of the Fourteenth Shrine Maiden." She looked each of them in the eye. "If Hakurei Reimu dies at this time, the Great Hakurei Barrier will only grow weaker. There's in fact a 45% chance that it will collapse, destroying Gensokyo."

"Yeah," said Reimu. It was just as she'd told Rika. "The Barrier is ... definitely weaker than it should be."

"Well, that chain of logic is sound, if nothing else," said Keine. "What information do you have?"

"The identities and locations of the culprits," said Ran.

"We already know that," said Reimu. "Mima, Noroiko, and Kirisame Marisa. They're in the Forest of Magic, right?"

"I see," said Ran. "Did you know that Mima is currently using a crystal ball to watch this entire conversation?"

"W-what!?" Reimu went on full alert and looked around, trying to sense whatever magics were being used to spy on them.

Kotohime looked straight up. "There," she said, pointing. Before Reimu could even detect what was there — she couldn't see or sense _anything_ — Keine and Kotohime pulled ofuda out of their sleeves, sent them flying into the sky —

* * *

"Whoops!" said Mima. With a gesture, the image in the crystal ball vanished.

* * *

— and only then did Reimu feel a faint perturbation, a faint sense that something had just winked out, before the ofuda even reached them.

Kotohime harrumphed. "Looks like she's faster than thrown charms."

"Um ... yikes?" said Reimu. "I ... almost didn't see it at all."

Keine shot Reimu a warning look, and she realized it probably wasn't a good idea to wear her heart on her sleeve while there was still a potentially hostile youkai around. She frowned, and turned back to face Ran.

"We believe Ms. Mima was also watching your other battles, as well," said Ran.

Kotohime shook her head. "Yeah, okay, what do you _want_?"

"Merely to give you information," said Ran. "The vengeful spirit Mima, the unrepentant ringleader; the curse-youkai Noroiko, the childish fool, who caved to the simplest threat; the human witch Kirisame Marisa, too easily swayed by the offer of that which was forbidden. They are located in the northeastern quadrant of the Forest of Magic. We merely wish to have your assurances that the threat will be neutralized."

"Yeah, we're gonna do that," said Reimu, trying to glare at her. "No matter where the threat comes from, even!"

"Indeed," said Ran. "And you, Miss Hakurei, must continue your training. At your current rate, we estimate that the Great Hakurei Barrier will reach its previous strength in the next twelve to eighteen months. You are forbidden from dying during that time."

Kotohime snorted and crossed her arms. "How very droll," she said. "I was friends with Chiyo, you know."

"I apologize," said Ran, looking genuinely taken aback. "I did not mean to offend."

Kotohime glared at her for another moment, then gave a curt nod.

"You said Mima's a vengeful spirit?" said Reimu, noting the 'I' in place of 'we'. "Not just a ghost?"

"Ah ... correct," said Ran. "Though we don't know what motivation or desire has prevented her from passing on, nor the method she used to retain her powers as a magician."

Reimu thought about this, then pointed her gohei at Ran. "Okay, fox, what do you _really_ get out of this?"

Ran didn't react to having a youkai-extermination tool shoved in her face. "Is it so unbelievable that continued survival is enough for our master?" she asked.

"Well, honestly, yeah," said Reimu. "I mean, if it's _that_ important, why doesn't she deal with it herself!?"

Ran nodded. "Therein lies the paradox," she said. "It is the place of humans to defeat youkai, not that of our master. And would you even believe a sage of youkai if she were to report that she had resolved the crisis behind your back?"

"No," said Reimu, Keine, and Kotohime.

"For myself, that would depend on far too many other factors," said Genjii.

"Just so," said Ran. "Furthermore, Miss Hakurei, besides the maintenance of the Great Hakurei Barrier, you require combat experience against a true youkai opponent, not a human you can neutralize with a single ofuda."

"Actually, we beat most of 'em _before_ hitting them with ofuda," said Reimu. She decided not to be more specific than "we."

"I see. Well done." Ran peered at her. "Incidentally, did Lady Yukari detect the use of your boundary-powers during the battle against the swordswoman? Our master is quite sensitive to such things."

"I don't think we need to keep a youkai up to date minute-by-minute about Reimu's training," Keine said coolly.

"Understood," said Ran.

Reimu sighed, and looked down at Genjii. "What do you think, Gramps?" she said. "You've dealt with these guys before, right? Can we trust them?"

Genjii grumbled. "The truth is that in every single crisis in which Yakumo Yukari has given us information, matters have been resolved much more smoothly than they would have been otherwise." He looked sidelong at Ran. "Or at least, except for those cases in which she showed her own face, but those instances were more difficult for ... entirely unrelated reasons."

Ran looked slightly pained. "Yes, she is indeed quite a handful," she said.

"Guess we'd better head back inside to make preparations, then," said Kotohime. "Unless there's anything you've conveniently left out?"

"Nothing of the sort, but there is one other thing," said Ran. "Our master has instructed us inquire about this, regardless of whether you wish to answer: are you working towards restoring the deity of the Hakurei Shrine?"

Kotohime laughed humorlessly. "Don't see why we ought to keep your master up to date about _that_ , either," she said, poker-faced.

"Very well," said Ran. "Just know that Konngara of Hakurei is no less important to Gensokyo than the Shrine Maiden, and she is more difficult to replace." Another portal-full-of-eyes opened, and she bowed to each of them in turn. "As you were, then, defenders of the Human Village. We shall see you again, Ms. Hakurei, after this crisis has been resolved."

"Um, bye?" said Reimu.

Ran slipped through, and the portal vanished.

Five seconds passed, then all four of them exhaled, and Kotohime dispelled her mines. Reimu took a moment to let her heart stop thumping loudly enough that Genjii probably heard it. "What _are_ those portal-things, anyway?"

"Yakumo Yukari refers to them as gaps created in the boundary between 'here' and 'there'," said Genjii.

"Where is 'there', exactly?" asked Kotohime. "I almost blew her the fu—" She glanced at Reimu. "... the heck up when she popped out like that."

Keine created an opening in her barrier, and they passed through; as they flew in, the guards retreated back into their shack.

"About four years ago, during a visit to the Hakurei Shrine, Miss Yukari described it as the actual concept of 'there', in comparison with the fact that 'here' is defined as wherever you are, relative to yourself," said Genjii. "I'm trying to remember her precise words ... ah, 'Wherever you go, _here_ you are.' And because of this, the concept of 'there' must be outside of _any_ location in time and space."

There was a pause. "What?" said Keine.

"Yes, that was more or less my own reaction," said Genjii. "For her part, Miss Chiyo said that she was not drunk enough to understand it."

"Ha! Me neither," said Kotohime. "It does make a weird kind of sense, though."

"That is largely the only kind of sense Yakumo Yukari makes, I'm afraid," said Genjii.

"So, wait, this 'youkai sage' is in the habit of just ... showing up at the Shrine?" said Reimu.

"Yes," said Genjii. "Though it has historically been quite rare."

"When was this?" said Reimu. "You said it was four years ago? Why didn't _I_ see her?"

"That was during one of the brief periods in which you were attending school in the Village," said Genjii.

"Oh, right," said Reimu.

She thought about this for several moments as they flew back towards the center of the village. "What is she ... I mean ... what's Yakumo Yukari's whole deal?" she asked finally.

"Yakumo Yukari is an incredibly ancient and powerful youkai, and is obviously therefore incredibly dangerous," said Genjii. "However, on the broad scale, her actions appear to be directed towards maintaining the current state of relative peace in Gensokyo. As for what she's like in person ..." He shook his head. "I have only met her a handful of times. She is simply ... indescribable. She is indescribably _strange_. She is a very youkai-like youkai."

"Well I wouldn't expect a youkai to be _human_ -like," said Reimu. "Um. No offense to you, Miss Keine ..."

"None taken," said Keine. "There actually are a few types of human-like youkai, by the way. But, Genjii, you're saying that ... to the extent that most youkai are _not_ very human-like ..."

"... Yakumo Yukari is very, very youkai-like," Genjii finished.

"Wow," said Reimu. "Gramps, you should've told us that _before_ we went out." Something else was nagging at her, a connection that had been made in her mind, but she couldn't pin it down ...

"I apologize," said Genjii. "Still, what I said was true: her information _is_ valuable, when she deigns to say anything of substance at all."

"Then I guess we'd better make the most of it," said Kotohime.

* * *

Mima sighed, staring at the darkened crystal ball. Marisa was sitting on her rolled-up futon, looking unsettled and annoyed. Noroiko was leaning against a wall, seeming even more nervous.

"So, uh, boss," Marisa said finally, "now what?"

Mima shrugged. "I suppose there's nothing for it but to get ready for the youkai exterminators." She grinned as a thought struck her. "Come to think of it, Yakumo Ran's proviso was fairly ... specific, wasn't it? Noroiko, you can dispel your curses remotely, can't you?"


	5. Chapter 5: Deadly Dances

**Author's Notes:** I added a couple of clarifying words to one bit of Kotohime's dialogue in the previous chapter; it wasn't clear enough that Marisa had been running away since November, but had been _brought back_ by Rinnosuke within days, until her final disappearance in the preceding month. ( _And_ I fixed an auto-formatting bug in chapter 3 where Meira's multiple exclamation marks weren't showing up.)

 **Content warnings for this chapter:** Canon levels of danmaku violence.

* * *

 **Chapter 5: Deadly Dances**

They returned to the Defense Force HQ. A policeman arrived, bearing the news that they'd found two more cursed Defenders, who'd been cured without much fuss. The Defenders had also figured out that Noroiko had struck her victims using homing bullets, which had swung around to hit them from behind after they dodged.

"Well, now that we have a location, and our system with the police seems to be working," said Kotohime, "I guess the only question is, when should we set out?"

Reimu nodded. "Well, um, how much time do we have?"

"I can keep my barrier going until a couple of hours after sunrise," said Keine. "I'll have to remain here, of course. But for all we know, Mima will have some sort of counterattack ready by then, and they'll still have access to Kirisame Marisa in the meantime."

Kotohime nodded. "I think it's going to be just you and me, Reimu," she said. "I mean, you're kind of mandatory, since none of _us_ can pacify a vengeful spirit who's also a magician."

"Is there anyone else available?" asked Genjii.

Kotohime made a face. "Everyone who wasn't cursed is with the search parties," she said. "It's not a great position for fighting back, but the Human Village is obviously our top priority. And I don't think any of the Defenders who _were_ cursed should be allowed in the same room as Noroiko for the foreseeable future."

"I can make charms against curses," Reimu said eagerly. If she could team up with Meira ...

"Nuh-uh," said Kotohime, shaking her head. "They're too close to this, still stinging from it. There's a reason, when you're in the police force, why you're not even allowed _near_ crimes where you were the victim."

Reimu realized that she was now in the position where she would be the one protecting Meira. It was still disappointing that she wouldn't be able to see her again yet. "Um, okay," she said.

"The two of you should be enough," said Keine. "Do you know how to make danmaku that only hurts your enemies?"

"Yep," said Reimu, tapping the Yin-Yang Orb.

"Great, that was going to be my next question," said Kotohime. "In that case, we might as well just get going."

* * *

After a brief bit of discussion, they made their way southwest towards the Forest of Magic, Kotohime lighting the way with her cloud and Reimu with the Yin-Yang Orb. Reimu's confidence was beginning to wane. She was marching off to her very first battle against not one, but _two_ youkai. Yakumo Ran's comments were gnawing at her, especially the bit about not being able to defeat someone with just one ofuda. Well ... Hakurei Chiyo probably could have exterminated something with just a single ofuda and a whack from her gohei, but Reimu wasn't anywhere near that level yet. Rika's tank had been pathetic, as she'd said, but Meira had actually beaten her.

"You doing all right?" said Kotohime.

"I think so," said Reimu.

"If you're not sure, feel free to duck out of the fights," said Kotohime. "I know you've got the skills of your predecessors, but you're still only fourteen."

Reimu thought about this. "No, I want to do this," she said. "I mean ... I'm gonna need to have a real fight at some point, aren't I?"

"Yeah, well, if you weren't the Hakurei Miko, I'd be telling you to come back in two years," Kotohime said bluntly.

"There is little we can do about it now," said Genjii. "Reimu is the only one who can seal Mima. She is not even the youngest a Shrine Maiden has ever been."

"Yeah, I know, I know," said Kotohime. "Well. At least wait until you can bring your god along next time."

"Um, okay," said Reimu.

Kotohime shook her head. "Seven years," she said. "That's ... I mean. Chiyo was a ... good friend and a great warrior, but as for keeping the Shrine itself going ..." She stared straight ahead into the darkness. "Well. You shouldn't speak ill of the dead."

"Yeah," said Reimu. The satchel felt heavy on her shoulder.

"I think we'll get Konngara back, at any rate," said Kotohime. "I think I mentioned I put the word out to the civilians, but I mentioned Konngara of Hakurei to the message I sent to the Defenders, as well." She shrugged. "We aren't exactly religious, if you take my meaning, but there isn't a youkai exterminator worth their salt who hasn't walked away from a fight and said, 'Thank _gods_ I lived through that.'"

Reimu managed a smile. "I think I'm gonna add whoever invented the Hakurei Yin-Yang Orb to that," she said.

"Hah, yeah," said Kotohime. She didn't seem the slightest bit amused. "Still, though ... well, this is Gensokyo. All a youkai exterminator can do is, just do whatever we can, until there's either nothing more to do, or until we can't."

"That is true of any way of life, really," said Genjii.

"Yeah," said Reimu. She turned her gaze forward. "Oh."

"Ah," said Kotohime.

The edge of the forest had just come into the range of their lighting. Noroiko was loitering in midair, leaning against the branches of a tree.

She was skinny, and looked like she was about the same age as Meira, maybe a little younger — not, of course, that this meant anything when it came to youkai. She had short reddish-brown hair with a bright red bow, plum-colored eyes, and she wore a purple dress with red crisscrossing ribbons around the skirt. "Hey guys," she said casually. "Thought you might be coming over."

"You must be _Noroiko_ ," said Reimu, trying to sound threatening and failing completely.

"That's my name, don't wear it out," said Noroiko, smirking. Despite her casual attitude, she seemed incredibly tense, like a tightly-wound spring that could go flying at any minute. "And _here_ we have a kid dressed up like a Shrine Maiden, her pet turtle, and some random policewoman."

Reimu growled. Genjii muttered, "Do not allow her to provoke you, Miss Hakurei."

"I'm not even in uniform," Kotohime said drily. "But let's cut to the chase. You know why we're here."

"Oh yeah," said Noroiko. "I mean, it's kind of obvious, right? This fox showed up, she was like, 'If the Shrine Maiden or _any_ human dies, my master will be your _reaper!_ I'm gonna go to the Shrine Maiden now.'" She chuckled to herself. "Damn near ruined our evening, y'know? So, I mean, don't get me wrong, I think I've taken a liking to screwing up youkai exterminators and all, it's just ..." She shrugged grandiosely, grinning nastily. "I'm not feeling _that_ murderous tonight, ya get me?"

"Well, that makes it easier," said Kotohime. "So, you gonna make this easy?"

Noroiko rolled her eyes and snickered. "What does 'make this easy' even _mean_?" she said.

"Well," said Kotohime, "you could start by —"

"Seriously, though," said Noroiko. "We don't have a whole lot of options when the Defenders or the Shrine Maiden come knocking. Once you've positively identified the culprit or whatever, you're here to either kill us, or seal us where we can't so much as _think_." She sounded like she was repeating something she'd heard from someone else.

"Not always," said Kotohime. "You could —"

"I'm saying I don't usually _have_ any incentives not to fight 'til one of us is dead!" Noroiko looked sidelong at Kotohime. "I mean, I'm pretty sure humans in jail are allowed to at least wake up before you execute 'em, right?"

"Well, if you're gonna be like _that_ ," said Kotohime, "it's a lot harder to lock up a youkai that's still alive and kicking. If she's conscious enough to see her surroundings, she's usually conscious enough to break out. And I've never heard of that _ever_ happening without a human getting murdered, if there were any between her and freedom."

"I have," said Genjii, "but in nearly all of these cases, this was because the humans in question were able to successfully exterminate or re-seal the escapee."

Noroiko blew a raspberry. "Oh, well when _human_ lives are threatened, suddenly you guys care."

"Um. Yes?" said Reimu.

"Yes, we do," said Kotohime. She glanced at Reimu and added, "This is what a youkai looks like who's completely remorseless about any killing, unless she herself is threatened or mildly inconvenienced."

"... What's your point?" said Noroiko.

"As I was saying," said Kotohime. "Still, though. If you kill one of us, you're going to get exterminated by Yakumo Yukari anyway."

"Yeah, well, I don't want to get killed by _you_ jokers, either," said Noroiko.

"There is a third option, you know," said Kotohime. "I was trying to tell you, you could show some kind of remorse for what you've done, and help us take Mima down."

Noroiko burst out laughing.

"Hey, it's an option that doesn't involve getting sealed or exterminated," said Kotohime.

Noroiko grinned, and shook her head. "I pick option number _four_!"

"You're gonna run?" said Reimu, tensing up.

"Nope," said Noroiko. "See, the fox said we can't kill anyone, or make it impossible for the squirt to be the Shrine Maiden, but she didn't say anything about just ... _making_ you leave for the night." She twirled around in midair, arms outstretched, and faint wisps of gray mist began swirling around her. "So let's _dance_!"

She unleashed a swarm of white bullets, shaped like the kanji for "curse" and infused with a dark aura that made them blend together in Reimu's senses. Reimu split the Yin-Yang Orbs into four, dodging and weaving through Noroiko's danmaku, firing ofuda-bullets which were phased to pass harmlessly through Kotohime. She didn't actually know what the curse would _do_ , if not simply mind-control her, but she didn't particularly want to find out. It was relatively easy to avoid getting hit, actually; the curse made it harder to distinguish individual bullets, but even Meira's danmaku had been thicker than —

A bullet that had made a near-miss swung around and headed back towards Reimu from behind. She shrieked and thrust her gohei back, dispelling it with a quick blessing.

Almost at the same time, she heard a loud pop and laughter from Kotohime. Reimu glanced over; she'd summoned her mines, one of which had detonated into small white pearls of danmaku. "Seriously?" said Kotohime. "You were expecting a cheap trick like that to work on _us_ , especially after we heard it from the other Defenders?" She launched a few mines at Noroiko.

Noroiko cackled as she danced and weaved unpredictably through Reimu and Kotohime's bullets, mists swirling around her. Through it all, she was still firing out her curse-bullets. Reimu stopped firing back for a moment, and just focused on dodging, which was ... easier, but it wasn't helping them win.

Reimu focused as much power as she could, gritting her teeth from the strain, and fired a single burst of ofuda-bullets, more at once than she'd ever done before, spread out just enough that there wasn't a single direction where Noroiko could just get out of the way. But Noroiko just laughed, dancing through Reimu's bullets ... and came to a sudden stop as she avoided colliding directly with one of Kotohime's mines. It was only a few seconds before the ofuda-bullets passed, and all Noroiko had to deal with were Kotohime's mines and pearls.

Reimu spared a glance to Kotohime. "Uhh, help?"

"Do as I do, but in the other direction!" said Kotohime. She floated a few meters lower, then started fired a two-dimensional pattern of danmaku at an angle that would pass above Noroiko.

 _Other direction ... oh!_ Reimu guided Genjii upward, and began firing a two-dimensional pattern of her own from the Yin-Yang Orbs, aimed _below_ Noroiko.

Noroiko snickered. "What?" she said, flying straight forward between the two patterns. She stopped laughing when Reimu and Kotohime started closing in their patterns on each other, like a pair of jaws with teeth made out of light. Noroiko barely managed to slip above Reimu's pattern as they intersected.

Reimu leaned out of the way of a row of curse-bullets that got close. They swung around to hit her from behind, and Reimu ducked, inadvertently swinging her pattern down again in the process. Noroiko let out a squawk as she flew straight into an ofuda-bullet, and with a loud snapping sound, her danmaku vanished in a shower of red sparks. She blinked a few times, looking stunned.

 _Wow, that was easy,_ thought Reimu. She launched a pair of real ofuda at Noroiko, in the same moment that Kotohime did the same.

But Noroiko quickly twisted out of the way, and fired four curse-bullets into the path of the ofuda. She hit two of Reimu's ofuda and one of Kotohime's, and the other ofuda flew harmlessly into the woods. "Well, okay, guess I underestimated you a li'l," she said. "But that's not gonna happen again." She activated her Spell Card, and was surrounded by a black and pinkish-purple aura — just like Meira's, Reimu realized. "This is a little number I call: Waltz of the Nagashi-Bina! _Let's dance!_ "

"You said that already!" said Reimu, at the same intant that Noroiko unleashed a torrent of bullets. The pattern was thicker than Meira's Trail Sign, almost as thick as _Keine's_ danmaku, consisting of the "curse" bullets standing on top of the relatively simple kanji for "person". They bobbed up and down as if on a river, and looked for all the world like some sort of strange dolls.

Reimu's immediate assessment was that they we're going to have to spend too much effort dodging to pull off such a simple trick again. Frankly, there wasn't enough room to try _any_ fancy predefined maneuvers. "First Card!" she said desperately as she activated Fantasy Seal. They'd come up with numbers so that it would be harder for their opponents to guess what they'd do next, although Reimu still had just the one. Fortunately, it was also getting easier to activate it quickly; unfortunately, she could still only fire bullets from a few Yin-Yang Orbs at once.

"Second Card," said Kotohime, as she fired up a Spell Card called Cloud Princess; Kotohime's Spell Cards were all plays on her name, the kanji of which roughly meant "rabbit princess." Her cloud started launching stylized wisps of smoke that exploded into dense bursts of danmaku.

It was chaotic, but Reimu was finding it ... manageable, as long as she focused on dodging and deflecting the bullets that got too close. It occurred to her that deflecting the bullets was something Meira had done — _no, stop that line of thought, it's a distraction, there's an enemy right in front of me._ Still, though, it was easier to concentrate on what she was doing than it had been in the battle against Meira, even though there were more actual bullets. Reimu didn't know whether it was because she'd tasted defeat and had come out with barely a scratch, or if it was because she wasn't distracted by a crush on her enemy, or just because she knew she had an ally who could take over if she couldn't continue. It didn't matter at the moment regardless; now was the time to act, not to speculate.

She started circling around Noroiko, trying to position herself so that the youkai would have to defend from multiple angles. Noroiko smirked straight at her, and responded by pirouetting _between_ Reimu and Kotohime, mist spiraling around her as she sent bullets flying wildly in all directions. Reimu gritted her teeth as she dodged through them, deflecting the ones that got too close.

There was a thunderclap of a broken Spell Card from Kotohime. Reimu looked just in time to see Kotohime slapping an anti-curse ofuda on her side. She briefly gave Reimu a thumbs-up. Reimu nodded back, and focused back on Noroiko even as she heard Kotohime say, "Third card!" and activate another Spell Card. Number three was called Bomb Princess. Sure enough, Kotohime began launching mines in Noroiko's general direction, detonating into chaotic patterns of pearls.

Noroiko did another pirouette between them, this time in the opposite direction. She narrowly but stylishly avoided one of the mines, and struck a pose while facing Kotohime. The mine abruptly swerved around and looped back to detonate against the back of Noroiko's head, sending her spinning out of the air. Reimu started to giggle, but she gasped and put a hand over her mouth as Noroiko hit the ground and rolled to a stop. That could have been _her_ , during the fight with Meira.

But the body of a youkai was much more durable than that of a human. Noroiko quickly hopped to her feet and launched herself into the air. "That's cheating!" she yelled, looking none the worse for wear apart from a couple of rips in her dress.

Reimu giggled again, slightly more nervously this time. "I can't believe you fell for your own trick!"

Noroiko stuck her tongue out. "Y'know what, I don't care about sparing you guys anymore," she said. "I'm just gonna skip to my last Spell Card, One Hundred Ghost Dances! They'll _never find your bodies!"_

She activated another Spell Card, and began a long, sweeping midair dance around the area, alternating between a grand jeté and a high-speed pirouette. With each movement, she sent out bursts of curse-bullets, and magenta lasers that curved wildly through the air. Reimu could _feel_ the deadly energies in the lasers. She focused all her efforts on avoiding them, since curvy lasers tended to be _really obnoxious_ to avoid.

But then she sensed a curse-bullet that was _much too close_ — she wasn't paying enough attention to _them_ — she felt a sharp pain in her side and heard a thunderclap, she felt her anti-curse charms starting to crack ...

Fortunately, the Yin-Yang Orbs knew what to do. Reimu reflexively snagged an anti-curse charm and slapped it onto her side, and the pain vanished with a sizzling sound. Immediately, she sent Genjii dodging out of the way of an oncoming laser.

"Are you all right, Miss Hakurei?" said Genjii worriedly.

Reimu shook her head, and just focused on dodging. "Yeah, I'm okay," she said. "Thank, uh, thank Konngara, any _other_ gods who're listening, and — ack!" She swerved to avoid a laser. "— and whoever invented the Yin-Yang Orb!"

"Do you need time to recover?" said Genjii, wincing as Reimu managed to avoid getting _him_ hit by a curse.

Reimu shook her head, looking up at Noroiko. "We haven't _got_ time to recover!" she shouted. She flew Genjii higher in order to evade another curse-bullet, then got an idea. She tapped her foot on Genjii's back, and moved her feet into a position to signal retreat. "Hey! Gramps, what are you doing!" she said, as naturally as she could.

Fortunately, Genjii caught on. "I insist, Miss Hakurei," he said. "Miss Kawaji has this well in hand for the moment."

"Ugh, _fiiiiine!"_ said Reimu, dismissing the duplicate Yin-Yang Orbs.

Noroiko snickered, and abruptly stopped as a mine detonated a little too close to her. Kotohime, showing no reaction to Reimu's supposed retreat, launched four mines at once in close proximity, and detonated them one at a time as they got close. Noroiko started focusing all her attention and danmaku on Kotohime, moving in a wide circle that sent her away from Reimu while carefully avoiding Kotohime's return fire. Reimu followed Noroiko, matching her speed, about ninety degrees around Kotohime behind her. When she reached the edge of the forest, she guided Genjii to move behind a tree, then waited and closed her eyes, using only her magical senses to see what was happening in the battle.

It wasn't long before Noroiko made it all the way around, and began approaching where Reimu was hiding. When she was almost upon them, Reimu suddenly zipped out from behind the tree, split the Yin-Yang Orb into four, and fired a thick burst of danmaku straight at Noroiko, with a real ofuda hidden among them.

Noroiko was visibly startled, but she quickly broke into a grin and danced through them. "Still pitiful!" she said. Three of the ofuda-bullets looped around to strike her from behind. "Oh no you don't!" she snarled, turning around and zapping them with a laser.

A second later, the real ofuda latched onto Noroiko's side. With a thunderclap and a scream, Noroiko fell out of the sky and landed facedown.

This time, she stayed there. Reimu flew Genjii over to Kotohime, and they watched her for several seconds.

"Nice trick," said Kotohime.

"Uh, thanks," said Reimu.

"Bet you a million yen it doesn't work on Mima, though." Kotohime cancelled her Spell Card. "Well, her body hasn't turned into dust, so she's still alive," she said. "Guess we'd better finish the job."

"Right," said Reimu, dispelling Fantasy Seal. They landed, and cautiously approached.

Noroiko pushed herself onto her side, swearing under her breath, but then she froze, eyes widening as she saw Reimu and Kotohime approaching.

Reimu pulled out four extermination ofuda, and jumped off Genjii's back. Kotohime had brought out a few ofuda of her own.

Noroiko exhaled, and chuckled. "Well, guess this is it," she said. "I had fun, guys."

"I didn't," Reimu said darkly.

"Last chance to give up," said Kotohime.

Noroiko responded by spitting at her, creating a single curse-bullet. Kotohime easily dispelled it with a pearl-bullet of her own.

"Right," said Reimu. She raised an ofuda ... and hesitated.

She was about to kill Noroiko. She was about to _kill_ someone. There was no use wrapping it up in flowery words like "exterminate." "Exterminate" _meant_ "kill." She'd never killed _anyone_ , other than fairies, who _couldn't_ die. _She, Hakurei Reimu, was about to kill someone._

Noroiko blinked, then grinned. "What, never killed anyone before?" she said. "I have. Lemme tell you, it gets easier and easier every time you do it."

"Shut up!" snapped Reimu, feeling her blood turning into ice. She threw the ofuda at Noroiko's right arm.

Noroiko let out a bloodcurdling scream. She sat there, panting for several seconds, then smirked. "That ... nnghh ... That was an i-imitation of the ... th ... the first human I k-killed."

"Okay, that's enough of that," said Kotohime. "Reimu, don't watch." She stepped forward —

— and then she and Reimu jumped back to avoid a giant metal staff with a crescent moon on one end, thrown from the trees.

Reimu looked up into the darkness of the woods, but there was no one there. A green-haired woman with a pointy white cap abruptly materialized in front of them, one hand gripping the staff. Reimu realized that she didn't have legs, just a transparent white wisp poking out from under her robes.

Mima pointed her staff at Reimu, and an orb of light appeared inside the crescent as she charged up a spell. Kotohime shoved Reimu aside a split second before it fired.

* * *

 **Author Notes:** I confess that the main reason I just straight-up replaced the stage 3 boss with the stage 2 midboss is because I really couldn't think of anything interesting to do with the Five Magic Stones. I'll probably make some kind of remix of "Bet On Death" eventually.

Anyway, **⇐TO BE CONTINUED=** *muffled Roundabout playing in the distance*


	6. Chapter 6: For Youkai, By Youkai

**Content warnings for this chapter:** Canon levels of danmaku violence.

* * *

 **Chapter 6: For Youkai, By Youkai**

The orb burst open and surrounded Kotohime with crackling energy. She instantly fell to the ground and went still.

"Wha— What did you do to her!?" exclaimed Reimu.

"Oh, I'm just tucking her into bed for the night," said Mima. She gestured with her staff, and Kotohime floated closer to the woods behind her. "Unlike Noroiko, I'm _genuinely_ not feeling murderous."

Reimu scrambled back onto Genjii's shell, split the Yin-Yang Orbs into four, and quickly took off.

"Thanks for showing up two minutes earlier, boss," said Noroiko, staggering to her feet. Her arm was limp; both of the ofuda Reimu had thrown were still clinging to her.

Mima rolled her eyes. "You're welcome for rescuing you at _all_ , even though you were trying to kill them and get us both exterminated," she said. "Would you like to die anyway, or would you rather just book it into the woods?"

Noroiko made a rude gesture with her free hand, rose a few meters off the ground, and wobbled into the darkness.

Mima floated up until she was level with Reimu, and sighed. "Why the hell did I decide it was a good idea to attack a fourteen-year-old?" she said. "I know why. It's because when you become a youkai, your mind changes. When you cease to be human, human deaths become opportunities rather than tragedies. When you're no longer alive, the living hold no value." She glanced back into the woods. "In that light, I suppose employing a bloodthirsty, shortsighted idiot like Noroiko almost makes sense. Much less saving her from getting exterminated."

"W-what do you want?" said Reimu. She still felt mildly ill about the thought of killing Noroiko, and tried not to be grateful to Mima for preventing _that_.

Mima chuckled as she turned back to face her. "If you'd asked me that question about six hours ago, I would've said it was the Yin-Yang Orb."

"That would be rather difficult," said Genjii, "given that youkai are unable to touch it, much less wield it."

Mima peered down at him. "Just because I can't it wield it as a Shrine Maiden doesn't mean that I have no use for an artifact containing a hundred and seventy-one years' worth of knowledge and experience from a succession of youkai exterminators," said Mima, slightly patronizingly. "Besides, it would have meant you two were mildly out-of-the-way for my next step."

"What next step?" said Reimu cautiously.

"Well, I've had a ritual on the back burner to turn myself fully into a youkai," said Mima. "I can still —"

Reimu exploded. "A _jinyou!?"_ This was the term for youkai who had once been human. She pointed her gohei at Mima. "I-I may not know a lot about being the Shrine Maiden! And, and maybe the Yin-Yang Orb is still using me instead of me using it!" she said. "B-but I do know one thing! A Human Villager becoming a youkai is the _greatest sin there is!"_

"Remain calm, Miss Hakurei," Genjii whispered urgently.

Mima smiled wanly. "Reimu," she said, "I've been dead for fifty-one years. That's almost ten years longer than I was alive. I'm pretty sure I don't count as a human who lives in the Village anymore."

Reimu fumed. "What could _possibly_ be worth giving up being human!?"

Mima considered this, then turned back to the forest and called out, "Marisa, you should come out and hear this. I can see you in the dark, you know."

"Blahhhh." Marisa flew out of the trees, sitting on the stalk of a strange oversized flower. She looked basically like everyone had described her, with red hair, dark purple robes, and a matching pointy witch's hat.

Reimu couldn't sense the shadow of a curse, which wasn't a surprise, but Marisa also didn't seem particularly happy to be there. Which ... _also_ wasn't a surprise, when she thought about it.

"In life, I was a magician," said Mima. "I mean, obviously. But one day, I took it upon myself to try to figure out exactly how Gensokyo came to be in its contemporary state, as a land full of youkai with the humans holed up in a single village. I won't bore you with all the details, but it took me everywhere from the history of the Shrine Maidens to the specific process by which youkai are born from and shaped by human fears."

"And what did you find?" Reimu asked, fully prepared to roll her eyes.

"What I learned that year was complicated, but ... no, that's not true." She grinned. "People always say 'it's complicated' when they think they won't like the answer." She floated off to the side, so she could face both Reimu and Marisa at once. "The truth is that Gensokyo and the Great Hakurei Barrier were created for youkai, by youkai."

"Wait, what?" said Marisa.

The night air seemed to grow colder. "That can't be right," said Reimu. "I mean, the Hakurei Shrine is one of the most important parts of the Barrier! ... Isn't it?" She looked down at Genjii.

"It is," said Genjii, and even he sounded uneasy.

Mima shook her head and smiled, not unkindly. "Did you think that the Human Village derived some kind of benefit from being backed up against a wall by monsters on all sides?" she said. "No, the inescapable conclusion is that the humans of Gensokyo are here for the express purpose of being terrified of the dark, in an environment where their fears could be manipulated. And you, the Shrine Maiden, were a contrivance in order to prevent humans from becoming extinct — though I confess I didn't realize that you were that much of an institution from the youkai perspective until Yakumo Ran barged in."

"No." Reimu shook her head. "That's just ..." She looked over at Marisa. "Did you know about this?"

"What, I'm just as surprised as you guys!" said Marisa.

"You don't _really_ think I'm the first youkai who's ever been threatened by Yakumo Yukari before the Shrine Maiden could fly, do you?" said Mima.

"I don't believe you!" shouted Reimu. "How d-did ... how did it take fifty years before you figured out how important _I_ was?"

"Well, I certainly knew the Shrine Maidens were important to the Barrier," said Mima. "That's something every Villager knows. As for the youkai perspective, I'd presume it's because Yakumo Yukari isn't in the habit of personally greeting every single living thing that happens to exist for any length of time in Gensokyo." She grinned wryly. "I was just off doing my own thing, I never stuck my neck out enough for her to bare her claws until now."

"Hmph." Reimu wanted to wipe that smile off Mima's face. "W-well, that doesn't change anything!" she said. "Even if youkai _did_ make things the way they are, I-I'm still gonna protect the humans! And that means beating youkai _and_ vengeful spirits that attack us!"

Mima just shook her head and sighed, still smiling. "You know, in times like this, I feel like my life took a turn for the worse ever since I died," she said.

"Aw, jeez," muttered Marisa.

"Um. Did it?" said Reimu, slightly thrown off track.

Mima inclined her head. "I suppose it's all part of the whole 'vengeful spirit' deal," she said. "I have only myself to blame, though; I mean, I _did_ place a curse on myself so that I'd be unable to pass on, but so that I'd retain my magic, and _then_ I specifically got myself murdered by your metaphorical ancestor in such a way that I'd come back full of hate and jealousy."

"You still did it, though," said Reimu.

Mima shrugged grandiosely. "Well, all I'm left now with is a needless need for revenge, along with the urge shared by all living things, to pass on my knowledge and legacy to a so-called descendant like Marisa," she said. "We don't actually have to fight, you know."

"What, you're just gonna let me exterminate you?" said Reimu.

Mima chuckled. "You know that's not what I meant."

"Then yes we _do_ need to fight!" snapped Reimu. "You cursed a bunch of people, you blew up the Shrine, you almost got me killed a _bunch_ of times, you put that spell on Kotohime, you're _trying to become a youkai_ ..."

Mima shrugged. "Kawaji's going to have the nice, long, full night of sleep which I'd intended for you," she said. "And again, I don't see why the jinyou thing warrants shouting at a louder volume than the murder attempts. Which, I might add, happened before Yakumo Ran showed up and gave me a dose of arm-twisting."

"Oh well that makes it all better," said Reimu. "So, what, you're sorry, and won't do it again!? Yeah right!"

Mima sighed. "Oh well," she said. "This _was_ what Noroiko was talking about, even if she was mindlessly repeating what I'd told her. But _do_ you have any options besides murdering me or locking me up in a box?"

Reimu fumed, thinking furiously. In her opinion, it was a valid question ...

"Do not allow her to persuade you to flee, Miss Hakurei," said Genjii.

"I'm genuinely asking," said Mima.

Reimu exchanged a glance with Marisa, who looked approximately as uncomfortable with all this as Reimu felt. She swallowed, turned back to Mima, and slowly shook her head.

"Look," Mima said gently, "you obviously don't want to kill me any more than I want to pass on. How about we just take a Mulligan? We go our separate ways, and you come back if and when I've done something that actually warrants a double-execution, once it's plausible that you can actually defeat me."

"I ..." Reimu clenched her teeth, and gestured with her gohei. "No," she said, with considerably less force than she wanted. "I ... y-you still need to be ..."

Mima let out an exasperated noise. "Marisa?" she said.

"Yeah?" Marisa said, without enthusiasm.

"Would you please slow down the Shrine Maiden for at least two minutes?" said Mima, turning back toward the woods. The gentle tone had completely vanished. "I'm going to go finish the jinyou ritual, with a hostage at my back." She pointed the staff at the sleeping Kotohime, who rose off the ground.

"Yeah." Marisa flew forward so that she was between Reimu and Mima. "Later, boss," she said flatly.

Mima started floating into the woods, Kotohime trailing behind her.

"Hey!" shouted Reimu. She fired a burst of ofuda-bullets from the Yin-Yang Orbs. Mima promptly moved Kotohime into their path, and Reimu flinched and quickly dispelled them. "Ugghhh ..." She watched as Mima disappeared into the darkness, then turned her attention to Marisa.

"Well, _she_ certainly abandoned all pretense of politeness at the slightest sign of friction," Genjii remarked.

Marisa shook her head. "Sheesh," she said. "Hey, can I make a different we-don't-have-to-fight offer?"

"What?" said Reimu.

"Well, I mean, I really _don't_ wanna fight ya," said Marisa. "I mean I ... _kinda_ do, you're the Shrine Maiden, and fightin' you seems like it'd be kinda cool, but it's like ... not right now, y'know? I don't feel like gettin' in your way while you're, uh, busy like this."

"Oh." Reimu blinked.

"Would you care to explain how you came to be allied with Mima in the first place, Miss Kirisame?" asked Genjii.

"Well, uh ..." Marisa snapped her fingers, sending out a small spark. "That's the first magic I could ever do. It's, uh, a star, 'n case you you can't see it from over there. A tiny li'l piece of _nothing_." She shook her head. "And my dad just yelled at me for just _bein' able to do it_."

"Really?" said Reimu.

"Yeah ..." Marisa shrugged, not meeting Reimu's eyes. "Then Mima comes along and she's all, hey, _I_ can teach you magic! And I thought it was cool, I thought it was ... _edgy_ and _awesome_ bein' the bad guy, cuz if making a li'l spark was evil, I didn't wanna be good. Then that fox showed up."

"Yakumo Ran," said Reimu. "She said ... Noroiko said she threatened you."

"Yeah, well, they weren't gonna rub _me_ out, cuz I'm a Human Villager," said Marisa. "But, like, she said I couldn't be a witch anymore, and anyway, that got me thinkin'. If even the biggest, baddest monster around thinks we're doin' something we shouldn't, what's even the point, right?" She laughed mirthlessly. "I was just ... kinda being a dumbass, basically."

"Your father was about to have a funeral," Genjii said weakly.

Marisa shrugged, looking away. "Ehh. I'm not ... too worried about that," she said. It didn't sound to Reimu like she was being honest. Marisa shrugged again, then flew her flower in closer to Reimu. "But ... I dunno. Look, how 'bout we both go 'n' kick Mima's ass?"

"You sure you can fight her?" said Reimu.

"Dunno," said Marisa, sidling up to Genjii. "I mean, I've only been sneakin' off to train with her since ... November or so, there's no way she taught me everything she knows yet. An' even if she did, she'd definitely have defenses against her own stuff." She gave Reimu a cocky grin. "But I think _we_ could take her, right? 'Specially since she isn't gonna try to kill ya."

Reimu smiled faintly back. "Well, okay," she said.

Marisa grinned, and turned her flower around. "This way! I'll take us straight to the cottage!"

Reimu followed. "Is that where she lives?" she said. "Or ... you know what I mean."

"Nah, it's just this shack where she could teach me stuff without gettin' rained on," said Marisa. "That's how she put it. I just call it a cottage cuz, y'know, witches live in cottages. Dunno where she really keeps all her stuff."

"Oh," said Reimu.

"Right before all this stuff happened, she took out everythin' interesting except my futon and a dresser, and a crystal ball we were usin' to spy on your fights," said Marisa. "I think we were gonna fight you guys head-on eventually, but, like, then Yakumo Ran showed up."

They made their way over the treetops; Marisa lit the way with a trail of glowing stars. It felt strange to fly alongside someone who'd just been her enemy, although she obviously hadn't really been on Mima's side. Still, Marisa's heart seemed to be in the right place, or at least it had found its way back to approximately the right place.

After a few minutes, Reimu saw eerie lights among the trees. As they drew closer, she saw that it was a large clearing, lit from within. Marisa suddenly darted forward, and did a strange twisty aerial maneuver as she dived downward into it.

"Let's ... not do that, Gramps," said Reimu.

"Agreed," said Genjii, approaching at a more leisurely place.

"Hey, boss, I just beat the Shrine Maiden!" Marisa called out.

"Yes, I heard the sounds of combat all the way from over here," said Mima's voice, completely deadpan. "Your news of victory astounds me, Marisa. In fact, I'd go so far as to call it _unbelievable_."

A small shack was sitting in the clearing. Mima was in the front yard, waving her staff over an eerie multicolored sphere of light, wider than she was tall. Reimu had never seen a rainbow-colored puddle of oil before, but if she had, she would have thought it looked something like that.

"Psyche!" said Marisa, swooping down. She fired a stream of multicolored star-bullets down at the yard.

Mima chortled and casually avoided the attack, deflecting a few of the bullets with a twirl of her staff. "It only counts as a 'psyche' if the other person actually believed you, Marisa," she said. She flew up until she was twenty meters above the ground, and grinned towards Reimu. "I mean, setting aside the fact that you _did_ take almost exactly two minutes, I'm disappointed in you, Marisa. I thought you were less mature than this."

Marisa laughed, and began zipping wildly over the clearing, firing lasers and stars seemingly at random.

"Wow, she's fast," said Reimu. "Glad we don't have to fight her." She activated Fantasy Seal, and began firing ofuda-bullets. This time, she just _barely_ managed to fire from four of the Yin-Yang Orbs at once.

Marisa paused as she heard Reimu's Spell Card, then grinned. "Star Sign!" she said, and she activated a Spell Card with a golden and white aura. She began flying even more wildly, rainbow-colored stars spinning around her like a galaxy.

Mima dodged and weaved through the dual assault, a faint smile on her lips. At one point, a laser went straight at her, but she transformed into a mass of blue flame with a white skull, and reverted when the laser had passed. She spun her staff around, deflecting Reimu's ofuda-bullets and Marisa's stars whenever they happened to come too close, but she showed no sign of actually fighting back.

Reimu made her way towards Marisa. She winced as a laser passed through her leg, but she didn't even feel anything; Marisa had obviously marked her as an ally. "What's she _doing_?"

"Uh ... dunno," Marisa said suspiciously. "Usually she's shot back at least once by now."

"Oh dear," said Genjii.

Marisa shrugged, and launched herself forward, leaving behind a golden trail.

Mima simply glided out of the way. Then Marisa's trail exploded into stars, flying in all directions and spiraling around unpredictably. Mima burst out laughing, dodging through them and briefly changing into the flaming skull again. "Mixing other people's Spell Cards with your own, are we?" she said.

"Yes, we are!" Marisa said cheerfully. She resumed zipping around and firing stars again.

"Then _we_ shall have to clip your wings in a moment," Mima replied, dodging even more quickly than Marisa's movements.

Reimu glanced toward the ground. The clearing was well-lit by Marisa's danmaku. The glowing sphere was still sitting there, apparently unaffected and unattended, but now it had begun pulsing, alternately brightening and dimming. She guided Genjii down towards it. "Hmm ..."

Suddenly, Mima slid in front of her with a smirk, placing herself directly between Reimu and the sphere. Reimu fired a stream of ofuda-bullets, and Mima furiously deflected them with her staff.

Reimu suddenly realized that she was moving backwards. "Gramps, what are you doing!"

"It's not me!" said Genjii. "She is ... exerting some sort of force against us!"

"Whoops!" said Marisa suddenly.

Reimu looked over and saw Marisa's Spell Card aura sputtering and winking out. "Marisa?"

"Uh, gimme a sec," said Marisa, who looked fairly winded. "Godsdamn Spell Cards take a lot outta me ... I can still shoot, though!"

She fired several lasers and stars towards Mima. Mima changed into the flaming skull to avoid each one, and each time, Genjii started moving forwards again. Reimu pulled out several extermination ofuda as she got closer; they wouldn't kill a vengeful spirit, but they worked faster than sealing-ofuda, and would keep Mima still long enough to finish the job.

Then there was an even brighter flare from the glowing sphere, and Mima quickly turned around and flew down towards it. Marisa's next laser struck Mima squarely in the back, and she plummeted to the ground and crashed into the sphere, which exploded in a brilliant flash of light and kicked up a cloud of gray smoke.

Reimu darted back out of the path of the smoke, and watched for several seconds. Then she said, "Did we get get —"

"Of _course_ we didn't get her!" said Marisa. "Jeez, do you even know how this stuff goes?"

The smoke dissipated. Mima's hat and robes had turned blue, and her robes had emblems of the sun, moon, and stars printed in white in a pattern just above the hem. She also had a pair of bat-like wings that seemed to be made out of frayed blue shadows.

"Crap," said Marisa. "Of _course_ she's got a super-transformation!"

Mima looked down at herself. "Well, _that_ didn't work. Still just a vengeful spirit. I still think this is an improvement, though!" She rose back up to meet them. "Also, Marisa, you read too much Outside World manga. Where did you even _get_ that nonsense?"

"Kourindou, duh," said Marisa.

"Be cautious, Miss Hakurei, Miss Kirisame," said Genjii.

Mima smiled towards Reimu. "Now, Shrine Maiden of Hakurei," she said, "do you still intend to fight me?"

Reimu gulped, then raised her gohei. "Th-that's right!"

"Me too!" said Marisa, raising her fists. Then she wobbled a bit and hurriedly grabbed onto her flower. "Whoa!"

"Damn," said Mima. "Oh well. As Kotohime found out, defeating you and sparing your life aren't mutually exclusive."

"Doesn't matter if you beat me!" said Reimu desperately. "I'll just come after you and fight you again!"

"Oh _fine_." Mima shrugged. "If you still insist on pointlessly exterminating me, I can just defeat you again and again and again." She held her staff out horizontally. "Orreries Night!" she said in English, and with a hissing roar, she was surrounded by a black and blue aura.

* * *

 **Author Notes:** For the record, Mima has a similar motivation to the unnamed fortune teller from chapters 24 and 25 of Forbidden Scrollery, "Unattributed Words are Easily Stolen." This is also the source of the word "jinyou" and of Reimu's line "A human villager becoming a youkai is the greatest sin there is!" (He's also the first youkai who is actually exterminated by Reimu onscreen, as opposed to just losing a Spell Card duel or getting sealed.) I figure that "we're trapped in a closed realm under the auspices of monsters" is a reasonable complaint for a human to have, although Mima's plan to become a youkai is less convoluted than the fortune teller's; I suppose a magician would have an easier time getting the effect they wanted.

⇐ **x2 BE CONTINUED COMBO⇒**


	7. Chapter 7: Orreries Night

**Content warnings for this chapter:** Canon levels of danmaku violence, one stronger cussword than usual.

* * *

 **Chapter 7: Orreries Night**

As Mima activated her Spell Card, four metallic orbs materialized around her, connected to each other in a square of pale beams of light. They began spewing small black stars with purple coronas — more than Noroiko's danmaku, more than Meira's, even more than the Spell Card that Keine had used. Reimu couldn't even _see_ Mima through it all.

Reimu was immediately put on the defensive. She didn't even know how it was possible to output this kind of firepower, much less how to counter it. She managed to get out a burst of ofuda-bullets every now and then, but they seemed to get absorbed by Mima's own bullets before they got anywhere near their mark. Reimu also noticed that Marisa had completely gone dark. Frankly, she was seriously reconsidering bringing Marisa into this fight; there was no way Marisa's skill could have been anywhere near what she was getting from the Yin-Yang Orbs.

 _Okay, forget this,_ she thought, and started pulling away. "Marisa, this way!" she called out.

From the depths of the bullets, she heard Marisa's voice calling, "Okay, right!"

This was followed immediately by a pop and a scream.

The star-bullets faded away to reveal that Marisa's flower was falling apart in midair, and she started to plummet, clutching her right side. Reimu cancelled her Spell Card and sent Genjii into a dive, feeling a completely different kind of panic from when _she'd_ fallen, realized that her angle was too high, tilted downward further, felt herself losing balance, tried to regain it, _Marisa was almost to the ground, there was no way Reimu could catch her in time ..._

Marisa suddenly slowed to a stop, hovering a meter or two above the ground, and her hat fell off. Her eyes were squeezed shut, and she was hissing between clenched teeth. "Ow," she gasped. "Ow ow owowowowow. Fuck!"

"Ye gods!" said Mima. She was pointing her staff at Marisa, looking surprisingly relieved. "That could have gone _much_ worse."

"What? _You're_ the one who was _attacking_ us!" shouted Reimu.

Mima shrugged. "Well ... I suppose I can't argue with that in the literal sense," she said. "I just wasn't expecting Marisa to have put it together so poorly that a single hit would tear her apart." Then she grinned, and an orb of light appeared within the crescent of the staff, just like the sleep spell she'd used on Kotohime.

Reimu charged down and wrapped her arms around Marisa, pushing her out of the way just as Mima fired. The orb just barely zipped past her back.

"Double-ow," muttered Marisa. "Gods _damn_ that hurts ... guess I wasn't ready after all. Ugh ..."

"You okay?" said Reimu, guiding Genjii to land.

"Never better!" said Marisa, with a glassy smile. "Ow!" she added as Reimu pulled her hand away.

Mima's danmaku had left a hole in Marisa's robes, revealing a nasty star-shaped bruise the size of her fist.

Reimu frowned at her. "You gotta get out of —"

Then Mima's dark stars started raining down on them. _"You gotta get out of here!"_ screamed Reimu, ducking. What had happened to 'why am I attacking a fourteen-year-old'?

"Okay okay okay!" said Marisa. She jumped off Genjii's back and ran for the treeline, then stopped, turned around, and blew Reimu a kiss. "For good luck!"

Reimu blushed furiously. "Just go!" She split the Yin-Yang Orbs into four and sent Genjii back up above the trees, in order to draw Mima's attack away from Marisa.

She dodged to the side to avoid another sleep-spell, and almost immediately found herself completely boxed in from all sides. The only direction she sort of thought she had available was directly away from Mima, and even that was merely "sort of." It occurred to her that none of Mima's bullets had come _that_ close to hitting her or Marisa on the ground; Reimu had been _allowed_ to draw Mima's fire. Well, it wasn't like it was a surprise that Mima wasn't working furiously towards killing them or anything. Was this really a "super-transformation", or had Mima just switched to a different costume and added illusory wings? Had Mima been the one who ordered Noroiko to make the cursed Defenders act all _dramatic_? Reimu wondered if she should try calling Mima's bluff, but this would probably mean she'd take a hit.

Mima started firing out fast-moving star-bullets at random. Reimu clenched her teeth as she ducked to avoid one, then swerved to the left to avoid another sleep-spell. This placed her directly in the line of fire of Mima's danmaku, and one of them struck her shoulder. Reimu screamed, and nearly dropped her gohei as she grabbed where it had hit. Her shoulder felt like it was on fire.

 _Focus! Focus focus focus focus focus!_ She winced, tears in her eyes, using her magical senses to avoid the bullets. _I can keep going after this!_ she thought. _Chiyo could keep going after something like this! All the other Shrine Maidens could keep going after something like this!_ At least, that's what a part of her was thinking. Most of the rest of her was just screaming, _OW OW OW IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS_ along with a few choice words that would have outright gotten her kicked out of Keine's classroom.

She dodged back to avoid another sleep spell, which stuck out like a sore thumb in her magical senses. She realized that Genjii had spoken. "Wh ... what?" she said, blinking away tears.

Genjii said, "I asked if you were all right, Miss Hakurei!" He sounded genuinely afraid.

Reimu shook her head. "I'm ... okay," she said softly. She didn't feel okay. "But ... there's no way I can take another hit, and no way I can ... hit her ..."

Unless ...

"Miss Hakurei?"

Reimu ducked under another a sudden fast bullet. "Gramps, I'm gonna go over her and attack from above," she whispered, just loud enough for Genjii to hear.

"Please do not place me in the line of fire, Miss Hakurei," Genjii hissed.

"We're already kind of in the line of fire no matter what," said Reimu. She leaned to the side to avoid another fast bullet, then back in the opposite direction to dodge a longer stream of the regular bullets. "But, I mean ... I think I have an idea." What she'd done once, she could do again ...

"Only do it if you're certain, Miss Hakurei," said Genjii.

Reimu peered through the bullets. She still couldn't even see Mima or the metallic orbs through all the dark stars. "The only thing that's 'certain' is, this is gonna _hurt_." She glanced upward. "Probably even if it works, I think."

"I suppose that's the best we can hope for at a time like this," muttered Genjii.

Reimu reactivated Fantasy Seal after a couple of false starts, and used the Yin-Yang Orbs to clear a path over her head. She guided Genjii up, stopping just within the circle of Mima's metallic orbs. Mima watched them approach with an expression of amusement on her face. Reimu could only get one of the Yin-Yang Orbs to fire as she tilted the Yin-Yang Orbs down towards Mima, while she gathered her flight-power into herself —

Mima rolled her eyes and pointed the sleep-spell up at her. A fast-moving bullet zipped out from behind, and Genjii screamed and fell out of the sky. Reimu fell six meters before she slowed to a stop just below Mima, who smirked and kept the staff trained on her. The angle of the Yin-Yang Orbs was now tilted too far down now to hit Mima, there was no time for Reimu to tilt them back up, and she didn't have the slightest bit of midair maneuverability to dodge.

So she reached into herself and twisted.

The world was filled with a pearlescent glow, and Reimu's hair turned black. Now that she thought about it, it felt ... quiet. Almost relaxing, even. Well, apart from the pain in her shoulder, but she felt like she could almost ignore that. Which probably wasn't a good thing, if it was a _real_ injury, but ...

Mima's spell passed through Reimu with absolutely no effect.

Mima frowned in surprise. "What?" she said. "That wasn't just some kind of ... boundary ... boost?"

Reimu discovered that her cheeks were hurting. Oh, it was because she was grinning uncontrollably. Huh.

She lost her grip on whatever boundary she'd just twisted, and the glow vanished. Mima snarled, and charged up the spell again. Reimu quickly tilted the ring of Yin-Yang Orbs up and expanded it to hit Mima's head.

There was a thunderclap of Orreries Night failing as the first orb hit her. On the sixth hit, Mima reverted to her blue-flaming-skull form and dropped her staff, and with every successive hit, the flame began to shrink. After a couple dozen hits or so, the skull was knocked out of the air and tumbled into a corner of the clearing, with only a faint corona remaining. Reimu's Spell Card faded, and the seven Yin-Yang Orbs became one again.

Reimu blinked a few times. It had gone completely dark, apart from the Yin-Yang Orb. Literally all she could see outside of her immediate vicinity was the faint blue of Mima's skull.

"Miss Hakurei?" Genjii said shakily from somewhere below her. "Are you all right?"

"Yeah," she said. "You?" She started to descend, until she could see Genjii floating up into the glow of the Yin-Yang Orb.

"I have recovered well enough to fly. That was exceedingly painful," said Genjii. "Ah ... your hair has turned black again."

"Yeah," said Reimu, landing on his back. She felt _exhausted_. "Wish I had a mirror ..."

Genjii shook his head, and began to descend. "What _did_ you do?" he said.

"Dunno," said Reimu. "I just twisted some kind of, um, boundary, and I sort of ... felt really floaty all of a sudden. And Mima's spell didn't work on me."

"Yes, I saw that," said Genjii. "I have not observed such a thing before, in any previous Shrine Maiden. There are of course techniques for avoiding harm, or for deflecting spells, but to be utterly _unaffected_ ..."

"Congratulations on awakening a unique power," Mima said as she popped up next to them, grinning mock-cheerfully. She now had six purple wings, looking even more ragged than they had before.

Reimu yelped and drew back several meters, pulling out a few extermination ofuda.

Mima followed after her. "Of course, it's clear that you can't simply pull that power out on demand for as long as you want," she said. "And I won't fall for that trick again." Reimu threw two of her ofuda, and Mima simply dodged to the side. "So I have a proposal."

"This had better be the kind of proposal where I _beat you right away!"_ shouted Reimu in a panic. She rose up and fired several ofuda-bullets from her gohei.

"Nope," said Mima, blocking each of them with her staff. "But what do you say we dispense with danmaku? I have to sit still for a few seconds in order to initiate nap time, after all." She suddenly swooped up and grabbed at Reimu's arms. Reimu barely managed to dodge, and nearly fell off Genjii's back. "I also need one hand free to do the staffy thing," Mima continued. "So there's going to be a couple of seconds where I'll be a sitting ghost." She swooped forward again, and this time she caught Reimu's wrists, pulling them over head and lifting her off Genjii's back.

Reimu screamed and kicked at her; her feet simply passed through Mima's body, like ... well, like a ghost. "Put me down!"

Mima smirked in Reimu's face. "Bad news, I'm much faster than any human." Her staff moved through the air of its own accord, and smacked Genjii away, sending him screaming into the darkness. "In the end, you're just a little girl, playing at being the big, strong, adorable youkai exterminator." Mima started slowly sinking to the ground. "You couldn't even bring yourself to kill Noroiko. What chance did you think you had against _me_?" She stopped, and held Reimu about half a meter above the ground. "Here, I'll even lower you so that if you fall, you won't hurt —"

A yellow laser suddenly hit Mima from behind and passed harmlessly through Reimu. Mima dropped her with a grunt, and Reimu let out a yelp as the jolt ran through her shoulder.

Mima stared at the source of the laser, one hand holding her stomach where it had passed through her. _"Marisa!?"_

"Hey, boss!" said Marisa's voice. _"Catch!"_ In response, Mima tensed up and spread her wings.

Reimu threw an extermination-ofuda at the back of Mima's head.

It seemed to pass right through her, but she twitched and went still in midair. Her wings fizzled out and vanished, and the staff clanged to the floor of the clearing. Reimu threw more and more ofuda until Mima reverted to her flaming skull form, and she kept throwing them until the skull hit the ground.

Reimu looked over at Marisa. "Th ... thanks," she said.

Marisa gave her a thumbs-up. "No prob!"

"Why'd you yell 'catch' like that?" said Reimu.

"Oh, it was a distraction for you," said Marisa. She grinned. "She sure caught it!"

"Haha ..." Reimu looked around, then down at Mima's skull. "Need a rock," she panted.

"What for?" said Marisa.

"Seal her," said Reimu.

Marisa nodded, and headed back into the woods, summoning more stars to help her see and leaving one floating near Reimu.

Reimu sank to her knees, and slumped over onto her back, which jolted her shoulder. "Ow!"

"Miss Hakurei?" said Genjii, from off to her left.

"Right here, Gramps," she said. "You okay?"

"My condition is reasonable, I suppose," he said, walking into the light of Marisa's star. "Fortunately, physical injuries are little more than a nuisance for spirits, divine or otherwise. She didn't even use any sort of magic that time."

Marisa came back with a rock as big as her head, and dropped it next to Mima's skull. "You all right?"

"Gimme a sec." Reimu sat up slowly. "Ouch."

"Yeah," said Marisa. She looked down at her own side. "Hurts a lot less now, though, just give it a couple minutes." She looked around the yard, and walked over to pick up her hat, which had been perforated by danmaku. "Well ... phooey." She glanced over at Reimu. "Y'know — whoops, uh-oh!"

Mima's skull had started to twitch where it lay, and the blue flames were intensifying once more. A faint purple and black mist began forming around it, and one of the ofuda fell off and crumpled.

Reimu quickly staggered to her feet, and pulled out eight sealing ofuda. She tossed them into the air, and they floated into an octagonal formation around Mima's skull, which was pulled up to hover between them. The mists swirled more closely around it.

"I call ..." Her voice was shaking. She took a deep breath, and started again. "I call upon the sacred power of Hakurei!" she said, and the ofuda began to glow and rotate rapidly, pale beams of light crisscrossing through each other and passing through Mima's skull. "Let this darkness be bound, so that it may not eclipse the light!" She raised her gohei and swung downward, and the skull vanished as the mist and flames were sucked into the rock, the charms attaching themselves to the surface. The remaining extermination ofuda fluttered to the ground around it.

Reimu sighed. It was over.

"Think that'll hold her?" said Marisa.

"It should," said Reimu. "I'll just have to keep it someplace safe. And ... refresh the charms in a year."

"I shall make it a priority to teach you how to send vengeful spirits to the afterlife by then," said Genjii.

"Yeah, that too," Reimu said softly, thinking of Noroiko.

"You really gonna ... do that?" said Marisa, looking slightly ill.

"Maybe," Reimu said softly. Well ... Mima was already dead, so it wouldn't _quite_ be like killing her ...

Marisa shook her head. "Y'know," she said, "I saw on her face, right before you threw that ofuda ... I kinda think she realized she was attackin' a fourteen-year-old again."

"Oh," said Reimu. That made her feel even _worse_.

Marisa seemed to be in the same boat. "So, uh ... what now?"

"Oh ... um ..." Reimu let out a great big yawn.

Marisa also yawned. "Yeah, that sounds like an _awesome_ idea."

Genjii said, "We should look for Ms. Kawaji."

"Oh, right!" said Reimu. "Um, Marisa ..."

* * *

Kotohime jerked awake. She wasn't sure where she was, or when she had gone to sleep, but she ...

... was pretty sure there shouldn't have been stars above her, or at least not giant glowing five-pointed stars _and_ a wooden roof. Nor should there have been a spent anti-curse ofuda on her face.

"There!" said Reimu's voice.

"Sweet," said another voice she recognized as Kirisame Marisa.

Kotohime sat up. They were inside a small shack, and she was lying on a mattress that was ever so slightly too small. Pretty sparsely furnished, too. Reimu and Marisa were standing around her, and Genjii was poking his head in from outside; they all seemed to have taken a hit or two apiece, but they were all upright and breathing. Marisa was also holding ... was that Mima's staff?

"Oh, hi," said Kotohime. "I take it you won?" She looked questioningly at Marisa, who smiled fake-cheerfully and didn't meet her gaze.

"Yep!" said Reimu. "Oh, uh, Marisa's not a bad guy, she decided she wanted to quit after Yakumo Ran went to bother Mima and Noroiko." She looked positively exhausted.

"Got the names of everyone who got cursed, too!" said Marisa. There was a dresser against one wall; she pulled open one of the drawers, and produced a small, rumpled sheet of paper. "All fifteen of 'em after Meira 'n' Rika, _and_ where they were gonna go hide!"

"Where'd did you get _that_?" said Kotohime.

"Oh, I wrote it all down while they were busy with other stuff," said Marisa.

"Sounds like you two have quite the story," said Kotohime. She chuckled. "Well. Like I said earlier, Reimu ... thank _gods_ I lived through that. Uh, especially, thank Konngara." They walked out of the shack; they were in the middle of a clearing with danmaku scorch marks all around. Kotohime took note of a stone covered in sealing-ofuda. "Did you get Noroiko, too?"

"Oh, uh, no, she ran away after Mima put you to sleep," Reimu said uncomfortably.

"Rats," said Kotohime. She shrugged. "Oh well, now that we know what to expect, we can find her and exterminate her later."

"Yeah," Reimu said softly, staring at the ground. Marisa suddenly seemed extremely interested in examining the staff and casting some kind of spell on it.

"You don't have to do it yourself, you know," said Kotohime. _Gods damn it, there's a_ reason _the minimum age of the Defense Force is sixteen, and it has_ nothing _to do with level of combat ability!_

Reimu shook her head. "No," she said, lifting up the stone. "I mean. I'll probably have to ... to kill somebody sooner or later."

Kotohime put a hand on Reimu's unhurt shoulder. "I'm just saying, it can be 'later' if you want," she said. "Like I said before, you aren't alone out here." She took the stone out of Reimu's hands.

"Well ... okay," said Reimu. "I guess." She carefully climbed onto Genjii's back.

Marisa finished whatever enchantment she was doing, then straddled the staff and rose off the ground. "Not as comfy as my flower, but whatever works," she murmured.

 _Flower_ , thought Kotohime. "So what happened after my little nap?" she asked aloud. She summoned the cloud, and the three of them took off.

Reimu looked relieved at the change of subject. "Well," she said, "first, Mima started talking about how she was gonna turn into a full youkai. Um, she had this weird idea of why the Great Hakurei Barrier was created ..."

Kotohime did her best not to react to _that_ , either. Well, most adults were at least vaguely aware that Gensokyo primarily existed for the benefit of its youkai, and there were certainly worse ways she could have found out ...

* * *

Noroiko sat under a tree, her arm hanging limply beside her, beads of cold sweat running down her forehead. She thought she'd heard fighting and a couple of screams a while ago, but there'd been nothing since then. Youkai-extermination ofuda lasted longer than one-time-curse-removal charms, and they hurt the entire time; she'd tried poking at them a few times, but they just stung her fingers. So she just sat there, waiting for them to crumple, wondering if she'd be able to run away if a youkai exterminator showed up in the meantime.

"Greetings, curse-demon." Yakumo Ran suddenly stepped out from behind the tree Noroiko was leaning against. Somehow, this was almost as creepy as those "gaps." "We are here to inform you that your co-conspirator has been sealed, and her apprentice has turned coat."

"Figures," said Noroiko. "Marisa did seem like she was about to flip out at us, y'know, ever since _you_ showed up."

"Indeed," said Ran. She looked down at Noroiko's arm. "That said ... here." She fired a golden laser out of her hand; it fizzled and went out as it struck the ofuda.

"Tried that already," said Noroiko.

"Ofuda have their limits," said Ran. She fired a brighter, louder beam, and kept it going for several seconds. "We're just speeding things up." She cancelled it just before the ofuda started to crumple.

"Oh," said Noroiko. She waved her arm a bit; it still hurt, but not as much as it had before. "Wow, thanks, you've got great timing."

"You're welcome," said Ran. "As a shikigami, we are quite skilled at high-speed calculations." She repeated the process with the ofuda on Noroiko's side. "How's that?" she said.

"Yeah, good now, I think," said Noroiko, staggering to her feet. The pain was already fading. "So what now?"

"The situation is broadly the same," said Ran. "If the Shrine Maiden dies or becomes nonfunctional as a direct or indirect result of your actions within the next twenty-four months, you will die."

"Fine," said Noroiko. "What if I just pick on youkai exterminators near the Village?"

Ran narrowed her eyes. "That is extremely foolish and has an 80% probability of getting you exterminated by the humans," she said. "We have no objections."

Noroiko started to laugh, then coughed and winced, clutching her side. Evidently, she still had another minute or two before she was completely healed. "Tell your master she can ... open a gap in the boundary between 'screw' and 'you'," she said. "And also, the Shrine Maiden's safe from me for the next two years or whatever."

"Very well," said Ran. "In all seriousness, though, we really do think you should start considering the actual consequences of your actions. You'll live much longer that way."

"Don't you guys get tired of making threats?" said Noroiko.

"That wasn't a threat," said Ran.

"It wasn't?" said Noroiko. "How is that not a ..." She shook her head. "Whatever. I guess I'll just have to think about that."

"Please do," said Ran. "As you were then, Ms. Noroiko." She bowed, and vanished into a gap.

* * *

 **Author's note:** Just one more after this!


	8. Epilogue: Post-Crisis

**Epilogue: Post-Crisis**

Kourindou was a small shop close to the edge of the Forest of Magic, a couple of kilometers from where the fight with Noroiko had been. It looked like three buildings in different styles had been squashed together; its interior was filled with strange and otherworldly artifacts, or at least Outside Worldly artifacts. Oddly, none of them had price tags. Marisa knew damn well that it was all an elaborate excuse for the proprietor, Morichika Rinnosuke, to hoard trinkets from the Outside World.

One of these items was currently the focus of Marisa's attentions. It was a sort of ball the size of a large watermelon supported by four squat legs, made up of interconnected concentric metal rings that seemed to be used for measurement; it looked like it was designed for the rings to rotate independently, but a few rust spots made this difficult. Several of the measuring rings had names etched onto them.

"What's this thing?" Marisa asked. She'd swapped out her torn robes for a more cute purple dress; at some point, she wanted to make herself a new witch-hat, but that could wait.

"That is an armillary sphere," said Rinnosuke, a bespectacled gentleman with silver hair and golden eyes, who merely looked like he was in his thirties. He had the ability to instantly discern the name and purpose of any object, but not how it was supposed to be used. "It's a tool for finding the location of any star in the sky."

"I know _that_ ," said Marisa. "I saw one of these at Miiiiiim _I mean_ , I've seen one of these before." She paused, but Rinnosuke didn't even react. "It's just, what's with these names? There's the Celestial Dragon, and the Great Tengu, and I have no idea what the heck _that_ name is supposed to be, what even _are_ those kanji?"

"I believe it was made by youkai, for the purposes of their own astronomy," said Rinnosuke, who sounded like he was trying to hurry the subject along.

"It doesn't have the most important stars, though!" said Marisa, before he could say anything else.

Rinnosuke grumbled. "... And what stars are those?"

"Shootin' stars!" Marisa grinned and winked, and snapped her fingers, producing a small star-shaped spark.

Rinnosuke let out an exasperated sigh. "Meteors are not true stars," he said. "An armillary sphere wouldn't have them. Look, Marisa, you really ought to have returned to your parents earlier today, considering that it is now past _noon_."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," said Marisa.

"This is no time to be flippant, young lady," Rinnosuke said sharply. "While you were off gallivanting with those youkai, we all thought you were dead!"

"Yeah, well ..." Marisa shrugged, looking away. "It's just ..." In truth, she didn't _really_ feel all that reluctant to go home. She just felt like she needed to make a point. She wasn't quite sure what that point was, she just knew she had to make it.

At that moment, the door opened. In walked Reimu, who looked exactly the same as she had right after sealing Mima, complete with that satchel full of ofuda for some reason. Kotohime stood at the doorway, and Marisa could see Genjii outside.

"There you are!" said Reimu.

"Hey guys!" said Marisa, grinning.

Reimu frowned. "Marisa ... you need to go home."

"As I was saying," Rinnosuke said sternly.

Reimu nodded. "I mean, c'mon, everyone thought you were dead!" she said. "You should've gone back this morning, it's almost 1 o'clock now!"

Marisa laughed. "Man, _everyone's_ sayin' that!" she said.

Reimu huffed. "Well maybe you should _listen_ , then!"

"All right, how about this, Marisa," said Rinnosuke. He was looking at the armillary sphere. "A few days before your birthday, I'll take you stargazing on a night which I know will have a large number of meteors. I think your parents will agree to that if you go home quickly, yes?"

Marisa gave her most theatrical sigh. Still, she couldn't say no to stargazing, especially when shootin' stars were on the menu. Even if she did have to go home first. "Welllll, okay," she said. "You got a deal!"

"Good!" said Reimu.

An idea struck Marisa. "Can Reimu come?"

Reimu was clearly thrown off-guard. "Uh, what? Why?"

"I dunno," said Marisa. "It's just, I mean ..." She gave Reimu a more relaxed smile than her usual cheeky grin, because this was important and also serious. "I feel like I kinda owe you for my part in this mess, ya know? I figure ... bein' your friend is kinda the least I could do."

Reimu looked thoughtful for a moment. "Um, I guess it's all right," she said. "And, well ... you _did_ help me take her down, and told us where to find the cursed Defenders. You don't have to say I did everything."

"Well, I see no trouble with Miss Hakurei coming along," said Rinnosuke. "I'll talk to your parents about it, Marisa."

"Then it's settled!" Marisa declared, adopting a tone which suggested that there wasn't the slightest possibility that anyone could possibly object. "Catch ya later!"

"Goodbye, Marisa," said Rinnosuke.

The Defense Force had confiscated and disposed of Mima's staff, because they had _lots_ of experience dealing with Dark Artifacts that needed to be chucked into the nearest volcano posthaste, so Marisa picked up a bamboo broomstick she'd enchanted earlier that morning; it wasn't as comfortable as the flower, but it was probably more durable. Marisa followed Reimu and Kotohime outside, where a couple of other officers were waiting. "Jeez, Kotohime, did you _have_ to go for the whole, y'know, cop-thing?"

"This is my job, Marisa," said Kotohime, who was all stone-faced and professional. Whatever, Marisa could see right through _that_ bull.

"Oh, Keine caught the last of the cursed Defenders," said Reimu.

Kotohime nodded. "Yes, thanks again for that list," she said.

"No prob, no prob," said Marisa, gesturing grandiosely. It was always a good idea to show off how self-assured and independent she was.

"Oh, and, um ..." Reimu walked over and said in a low voice, "Remember, don't mention the Yakumos."

"Yes, I don't even know how we _could_ spin the Yakumos' involvement," said Kotohime under her breath. "The cover story will be the one you suggested, Marisa: it was impossible to miss the fact that Mima was a villain once you started living with her full time, you were miserable by the end, and Reimu's the one who finally convinced you to go against her."

"No worries, I can just imagine how my dad would react," murmured Marisa. "Hey guys, I'm back, I switched to Reimu's side cuz we got told off by a kitsune, who works for _another_ youkai who's 'parently _really tricksy_." She shook her head. "I ... y'know what, I'll just say I don't wanna talk about it."

"Probably wise," said Kotohime. "Just let me and the other police do the talking."

"Yeah," Reimu said softly. She looked like she _also_ had something on her mind, and was trying to distract herself.

Marisa considered this, then hugged Reimu, who stiffened. "Don't worry 'bout it," said Marisa. "You've got a million advantages. Stuff's gonna be easy for you, y'know?"

Reimu just looked uncomfortable for a moment, and then managed a weak smile. "Um ... well, thanks," she mumbled.

Marisa stepped back and nodded, giving her a calculated cheeky grin and a thumbs up. Now that she'd discovered that it was okay for girls to fall in love with other girls, she wanted to make up for almost fourteen years of lost time. (What with one thing and another, Marisa had been left with the impression that you ought to have your romantic situation completely sorted out before you turned twenty.)

Reimu climbed onto Genjii's back. "Um, we're just gonna head back to the Shrine," she said.

"All right," said Kotohime. "You just take it easy for now, Reimu. Just laze around, you've earned it."

Reimu laughed. "Jeez," she said, shaking her head. "Yesterday right after the Shrine blew up, I was thinking I could laze around as, y'know, a reward for beating whoever cursed Rika. I didn't know what that would actually _feel_ like, y'know?"

Kotohime shot Reimu a smile which Marisa thought was slightly forced. "Welcome to the youkai-exterminator club," she said. "Let us know if anything happens with the god of the Shrine, all right?"

"Okay," said Reimu, as Genjii rose off the ground. "See you all later!"

"Bye!" said Marisa. When they were in the air, she said, "Man, she keeps saying I helped out, but _she's_ the one who ended up like _that_."

"That doesn't mean your contributions didn't matter," said Kotohime. "It's not the first battle I've seen that was decided by a single timely distraction, and who knows _when_ we would've found the other cursed Defenders without your help."

"Well, all right," said Marisa, glancing over at Reimu's retreating back. "Well, I'll have to come visit the Shrine some other time." She had read enough comics about romance and between boys and girls to have a working idea of what _that_ looked like, but with another girl, she was just flying by the seat of her broomstick. Still, it seemed that half the time, the couples just did normal stuff together until they finally kissed; the obvious thing to do was to start by treating Reimu like a friend.

And either way, she'd need all the advantages she could get if she wanted to outmatch the Hakurei Shrine Maiden any other way. "Hokay, let's go!" she said, angling her broomstick upward. "Next stop, Human Village!"

"Please don't try to race us again, Marisa," said Kotohime.

* * *

Reimu landed at the torii arch of the Hakurei Shrine, and hopped off Genjii's back. The carpenters from the Human Village seemed to be making good progress; she could already see the general shape of the structure. It was being funded by the Hieda family, which was old money — the oldest money in Gensokyo, in fact.

There was also a group of young men and women sitting around and not doing much; some of them had obvious weapons, and all of them wore the armband of the Youkai-Extermination Defense Force.

Reimu and Genjii were approached by the chief carpenter, Hara Takumi, who happened to be Rika's father. "Ah, Ms. Hakurei, Mr. Genjii!" He was a stubble-faced man in his forties with a ponytail. He paused when he saw Reimu. "Is everything all right?"

Reimu smiled faintly. "I'm fine, I'm just tired."

"I'm not surprised," said Mr. Hara. "Sounds like you were up late fighting that vengeful spirit who attacked us."

"Yeah," said Reimu. "I had help from Kirisame Marisa, though."

"Yeah, I heard rumors," said Mr. Hara, smiling. "Back from the dead to help the Shrine Maiden save the day, huh?"

"Haha, yep," said Reimu. Kotohime had said she didn't want news of Marisa's _complicity_ to reach Mr. Kirisame's ears until he had Marisa right in front of him, but she was pretty sure Marisa was already home by now. Well ... probably. Actually, you know what, it was probably best not to say _anything_ yet.

"Anyway, like I was saying, we're making good progress," said Mr. Hara. "Same time estimate I gave this morning, we'll get it done by Sunday or Monday."

"Oh, good," said Reimu.

Mr. Hara hesitated. "And ... once again, I have to say ..." He bowed low. "Thank you for rescuing my daughter yesterday."

Reimu managed a smile. "No problem," she said. "It's just, y'know, the job of the Shrine Maiden."

"Mm." He looked down at her dubiously. "Honestly, I feel kind of weird about having a fifteen-year-old Hakurei Miko," he said.

"Fourteen," said Genjii.

Mr. Hara managed not to wince. "I briefly knew Hakurei Chiyo through the Defense Force, and ... I just remember Rika being your age." He shook his head. "You sure you're all right?"

"Yeah," Reimu said promptly, wondering if she really was.

He peered down at her. "Just ... don't overdo it, will you please?" he said.

"Okay," said Reimu, feeling even _less_ certain about _that_.

He nodded slowly. "I prayed to Lady Konngara, by the way," he said. "Here's hoping she can recover all the faith she lost."

"Oh, yeah," said Reimu. "Thanks!"

"Indeed," said Genjii. "Every little bit helps. Thank you very much."

"You're welcome!" said Mr. Hara.

"Um, I'm gonna go rest some more," said Reimu.

Mr. Hara chuckled. "You do that," he said. "You obviously earned it."

Reimu smiled back. "Lemme know if ... if anything happens," she said.

"Sure, sure!" he said.

Genjii dematerialized to ... do whatever he did when he wasn't manifesting as a tortoise, and Reimu went to the living quarters. She regarded her rolled-up futon for a moment, then just unrolled it and flopped onto it, fully dressed. Her satchel and gohei sat on the floor on either side of her, with the Yin-Yang Orb next to her head.

Last night had been ... a mess, quite frankly. After talking extensively with Genjii this morning, she was pretty sure she'd managed to seal Mima solely because of the vengeful spirit's arrogance. The thing was, Mima had insisted on _winning_. She hadn't considered the slightest possibility of any outcome other than "Reimu walks away" or "Reimu loses." Mima could have fled on her own, she could have given Reimu more than two seconds at a time to think of, she could have woken up Kotohime so that Reimu and Genjii wouldn't be completely alone ... and instead, she had escalated the conflict when they'd gotten in a lucky hit, she'd escalated when Marisa had almost _died_ , she'd escalated and escalated until Reimu _didn't_ have any options other than sealing her.

"Annoying," muttered Reimu. Well ... someday, probably not too far in the future, she'd be a good enough fighter that she could take on any opponent with impunity.

Honestly, this had just been _exhausting_. Reimu wished she could ask Chiyo how she'd done it. Well ... she'd be able to ask Konngara soon, at any rate. She wondered where Chiyo's soul had gone, or if she'd already reincarnated.

She lay there for several hours, listening to the construction and occasionally dozing lightly. At one point there was a jangling danmaku sound, which made her jump to her feet, but it was immediately followed by laughter and someone yelling, "That was just a fairy, you goof!"

Finally, at around five o'clock, there was a light rapping on the door. Reimu quickly got up and slid it open. "Yes?"

"It's just about time for us to head back to the Village for the night," said Mr. Hara.

"Oh, okay," said Reimu. She looked past him at the Shrine, which was ... still incomplete, but she could see that progress had been made. "I'll see you all tomorrow, then!"

Mr. Hara bowed, and turned. "Hokay, everyone, the work day is officially over!" The Defense Force youths were the first to their feet.

Reimu saw them off, and set the Yin-Yang Orb down in the middle of the half-completed building. She kept her satchel and gohei on hand, because it seemed like she shouldn't take any chances at the moment. After her rest, though, she felt as though she could handle whatever was needed for the rest of the day, such as it was.

She checked the offertory box. It contained about seventy thousand Gensokyo yen, plus a handful of the gilt oblong tengu-coins from Youkai Mountain — which didn't _quite_ have a stable value relative to the human currency, but in practice, most places in the Human Village just accepted them as 1000-yen coins. Reimu could ... _probably_ live off this for the next few weeks. Money seemed empty, in terms of a reward, but what could you do? She just grimaced, and once again thanked Konngara and whoever had invented the Yin-Yang Orb that she'd survived.

Reimu felt a very faint ... presence in front of her, seemingly in response to her prayer. She looked up, but there was nothing. After a moment, she just shrugged, and carried the offertory box over to the storage shed where the Shrine's money was kept.

Mima's stone was sitting on top of the safe; all the ofuda were holding steady, and Reimu had added a couple more. She rested her hand on it, feeling a faint thrum of the power. It seemed ... odd, that such a terrifying enemy could have just been reduced to a prisoner in a rock. Well, the whole adventure had been kind of weird, really, although now that Reimu thought about it, she wasn't sure what "normal" would actually look like. She'd probably never _just_ rush in, exterminate some troublemaking youkai, and then kick back at the Shrine.

Especially now that she wasn't sure she _could_ exterminate ... kill anyone. Reimu sighed, and just put the money into the safe.

As soon as she'd left and the shed's door was closed, a purple and black mist resumed leaking out around the ofuda.

Reimu went to the living quarters. She realized that her homework was exactly where she'd left it when the Shrine had exploded yesterday. Keine had given her an extension, but after that display with Meira, Reimu didn't want to take any chances, even if it had just been a ruse.

She reached for her writing implements, then hesitated. There was one other thing she'd wanted to do since last night.

She twisted the boundary inside herself for a few seconds. Once again, she felt completely weightless and relaxed. She twisted it back, then pulled a small hand mirror out of the dresser. Now that she could see better, her hair seemed dark brown rather than completely black. Reimu thought she could get used to the look. (Of course, she'd _have_ to, eventually.) Maybe if she got a haircut ...

She briefly felt the creepy sensation of a boundary of nothingness opening just past the Shrine's torii arch. Oh, right, Yakumo Yukari was supposed to be "sensitive" to Reimu's boundary powers, wasn't she?

Reimu rushed outside, summoned the Yin-Yang Orb, and split it into four. Genjii appeared a second later. "Miss Hakurei, what — ah."

"Yeah," said Reimu, scrambling onto his back.

Yakumo Ran was floating just past the arch, looking just like she had before, complete with clasped hands. "Greetings, Shrine Maiden," she said as Reimu approached.

"Hi," said Reimu, frowning.

"You appear to have been practicing your boundary-powers," said Ran.

"Uh. Still haven't figured out what I did or what the other effects were," Reimu lied. "What do you want?"

"Our master wishes to grant you a fee for successfully neutralizing a threat to the Great Hakurei Barrier," said Ran. She unclasped her hands, revealing that one of them contained a small leather pouch, which bulged.

Reimu peered at it. "No tricks? It's not gonna turn into twigs and leaves the minute you're gone?"

"It will not," said Ran. "No tricks, either on our part or on that of our master."

"You might as well accept it," said Genjii. "Yakumo Yukari has given 'fees' like this to the Hakurei Shrine before, and there have been no attempts to trick us in any meaningful way."

"Um, fine," said Reimu. She guided Genjii forward to take the pouch, and opened it up.

There were twenty gold tengu coins in two short stacks. Twenty thousand Gensokyo yen. It felt, if anything, even more of an empty gesture than the other money. "Um, thanks, though."

"You are quite welcome," said Ran.

Reimu closed up the pouch, then looked up at Ran. "So, why isn't Yakumo Yukari showing up herself?"

"You are approximately ten years too early to face our master," said Ran.

"Approximately, huh?" This level of silliness _just_ managed to get Reimu to crack a smile.

"We weren't using the figurative expression to mean that you're woefully unprepared," said Ran. "Youkai are born from human fears, which is why the majority of us are deadly, mysterious, or terrifying, and our master is all three. Extrapolating from your performance last night, we estimate that you shall not be ready to meet her before the summer of the 125th season." She raised her eyebrows. "That is, assuming you live that long."

"That's nine years," said Reimu.

"The youkai calendar starts with season 0," said Ran serenely.

"Yakumo Yukari has had this 'ten years too early' message to _every_ new Shrine Maiden," said Genjii.

"Whatever," said Reimu. She took a deep breath, and broached the other subject that had been bothering her. "Hey, uh, I know you guys are behind the 'beginner's luck' thing."

"Are we?" said Ran, poker-faced.

"I was talking about this with Genjii this morning," said Reimu. "Mima sorta told us that you — Yakumo Yukari, and you and whatever other minions she has, you go around, like ... making deals with other youkai, threatening 'em, and, and just, keeping a lid on things while we're ... not good enough to do anything about it." She watched Ran's face, but there was no reaction. Reimu plunged on. "This time, you had to deal with us yourselves, because you couldn't stop them before they cursed a whole bunch of Defenders and blew up the Shrine."

"If that is true," said Ran, her face still unreadable. "would you rather we did not, or would you prefer if we simply gave you a detailed report on our activities?"

Reimu hadn't actually thought that far. "Well." She gestured with her gohei. "That's, uh, that's the paradox! I wouldn't even believe you no matter what you said!"

"Just so," said Ran. "What do you intend to do, then?"

"Just, um." It occurred to Reimu that suddenly putting on a poker-face was an indication of _something_ , and it probably wasn't innocence. "I'm onto you guys, okay?" she said. "And I'm, um. I'm still gonna keep protecting the Human Village and making sure the Great Hakurei Barrier doesn't fail! And if _you_ start making trouble, then, um." She waved her gohei. "Then I'll take the fight to you guys!"

She realized as she said this that this was probably a _really stupid_ thing to say, especially if she _was_ ten years too early, or woefully unprepared or whatever. She just glared at Ran.

But Ran only said, "We believe our master will consider that to be _quite_ excellent, shrine maiden." She bowed, and a gap opened behind her. "As you were, then, Miss Hakurei, Mr. Genjii."

* * *

She felt a brief stab of pain as the Shrine was destroyed.

Then a whisper of a prayer touched her. _"Thank gods, and, um, especially Konngara, that I was ... doing homework in the living quarters, instead of dealing with something in the Shrine."_ It was the voice of Hakurei Reimu, her new Shrine Maiden. She sensed that the girl hadn't literally been doing homework. She clung to this awareness.

Within a few hours, she heard more distant whispers, first a trickle, then a torrent. _"Lady Konngara, please let our Village survive the night."_ _"Oh great goddess Konngara, please deliver us from evil through thy Shrine Maiden."_ _"Lady Konngara, I ... I dunno if I really_ believe _-believe in all this stuff, even after I've met Aki Minoriko, but ... well ... look out for us, will ya? And look out for Reimu."_ At first, she heard them only because of the proximity of her Shrine Maiden, but soon they came to her by sheer weight of numbers, hundreds if not thousands of souls all praying to one god. It was like nearly dying of thirst, and suddenly finding a torrent of water running over your lips. A prayer in thanks from Reimu at the edge of the Forest of Magic, a halfhearted prayer from another youkai exterminator deeper inside ...

Throughout the next day, she felt the prayers from the workers who were rebuilding her shrine. It wasn't necessary at this point, but it helped to ease her pain. There were quite a few thankful prayers from one Hara Takumi. She also heard a couple of indistinct prayers from the Village, but they were more indistinct. Something about someone's missing daughter who'd turned up.

Finally, there was one last prayer, another one straight from her Shrine Maiden, a repeat of her thanks for survival.

Konngara had gotten quite a bit of faith, all told.

In the center of the partially-rebuilt Shrine, for the first time in seven years, something began to stir.

This stirring did not go unnoticed. After the sun had set and Reimu was asleep, a gap opened up directly above the torii arch. Out floated a youkai with golden hair and violet eyes, dressed in a frilly purple dress and a white mob cap; around the cap and in her hair, there were pinkish-red ribbons which looked exactly like the ones on her gaps.

Yakumo Yukari smiled. Or rather, I smiled.

(... and here I must apologize, dear reader, for what must doubtlessly seem to have been a deception in my chosen form of narrative. Not that I _deny_ being deceptive ... but if you read carefully, you may notice that I never directly referred to myself in the narration until this point, except in dialogue and internal monologues! Hmhmhmhmhm~)

"Ah, excellent!" I said. "It's good to see that I'll soon have the opportunity to speak with you again, Lady Konngara." My smile was quite unreadable; there are more ways to hide your thoughts than a mere lack of expression. Indeed, even you can't fully discern my thoughts, can you, dear reader?

Konngara was jolted into further wakefulness. Her first thought was along the lines of: oh, _hell_ ...

"And as you know, I'm never one for passing up an opportunity," I continued, raising my eyebrows. "If, for example, I were to discover that a vengeful spirit named Kirisame Mima was ignorantly plotting to attack the defenders of the Human Village ..." I grinned, and shrugged. "Well, I would be quite unable to resist the opportunity it provided for your resurrection. If the Village's own defenders were attacked, it would be quite inevitable that the Human Village would take the opportunity to unite in prayer against a common threat."

Konngara's mind raced. The only coherent thing running through her mind was _What!?_

"It wasn't precisely entrapment," I continued. "It was all Mima's own design. It would seem that as a rule, I do not interfere unless a youkai is attacking a young Shrine Maiden, but in this case, I simply ... stood aside, and allowed it. Until I did not, of course." My gaze shifted towards the storage shed, and my grin became cheeky. "Just as I allowed Hakurei Reimu to seal Mima away in _that_ condition ... but I do not foresee any fatal complications."

Then Konngara noticed the dark energies leaking from the stone in the storage shed. Now there was something else running through her mind, namely incoherent swearing.

"I must apologize, however," I said. "I did not intend for the Hakurei Shrine to be destroyed, and I am sorry I was unable to prevent that. I can only promise you that if young Reimu had been inside the Shrine when that missile was fired, I would have rescued her." I grinned. "She _thought_ she could reliably detect my gaps with her burgeoning power, but rest assured, I was watching this whole scenario much more closely than anyone believed."

Konngara didn't find that very reassuring at all. Well ... _sort of_ , she knew that I tended to own up to my mistakes, but still. But Konngara was fairly sure that this was the kind of "apology" that would have made her absolutely furious if I had waited until she was fully alive, which she presumed was why I hadn't waited.

"In any event, it seems that there is no further need to take action myself," I said. "With the culprit sealed for the time being, the Shrine well on its way to rebuilding, and the Hakurei Miko safe, there is no further threat to my greatest creation, the Great Hakurei Barrier." I winked. "So, goodnight, Konngara of Hakurei, and _may great things come from your Shrine Maiden!"_

And with that, I descended back through the gap, and was gone.

* * *

 **Author's Notes:** Well, that's a wrap! Hope you enjoyed reading.

... I've already started working on future installments. Terry Pratchett once quoted Douglas Adams by saying the best time to start writing a new book is when you're in the warm glow of having completed the previous one, though I can't find the original version of this. No promises on when they'll actually get here, though! _This_ one took more than three months. It seems that the way to do these stories is 1. make sure the project is small enough that the end is always in sight, and 2. plan everything out. That said, this ended up being about three times as long as I was expecting.

Hm ... not gay enough. I'm sort of playing a longer shipping game than I probably should; it's probably going to end up getting derailed eventually. I mean ... you know what they say about the best-laid plans of mice and men, don't you, dear reader? And of gods and youkai, for that matter. Hmhmhmhmhm~


	9. Appendix: Dramatis Personnae

**Hakurei Reimu (博麗 霊夢): The Not-Quite-Fledgling Shrine Maiden of Paradise**

Species: human

Age: 14 (b. sometime in October or November, CE 1986/Hakurei 102; birthday is celebrated on November 1)

Ability: The powers inherited from the past Shrine Maidens of Hakurei.

The main playable character in almost every game. She sort of diverged from canon, as written (don't worry, there'll be convergence later). Her birthday is taken from the release month of Highly Responsive to Prayers.

 **Genjii (玄爺): The Flying Tortoise of Ancient Wisdom**

Species: divine spirit (tortoise)

Age: Unknown. Assigned to Hakurei Shrine in CE 1887/Hakurei 3.

Ability: Eidetic memory.

Reimu rode on his back during the PC-98 era since she couldn't fly on her own, though he only had dialogue in Story of Eastern Wonderland. Mostly canon. I made him a divine spirit because I decided it didn't make sense for a youkai to be a loyal servant of the Hakurei Shrine at this stage of the game. This would mean he was originally a living being who achieved divinity before or after his death, but I couldn't work anything about that into this story.

 **Hara Rika (原 里香): The Fantastical Engineer**

Species: human

Age: 19

Ability: Technological and mechanical aptitude.

The stage 1 boss in Story of Eastern Wonderland along with the Flower Tank, and the Extra Stage boss along with a more ridiculous invention. "Hara" comes from Hara Tomio, the head of Japan's tank development department who had a hand in the creation of Japan's first tank, the Type 87 Chi-I medium tank (which wasn't appreciably faster or more impressive than the Flower Tank).

 **Miyamoto Meira (宮本 明羅): The High-Born Samurai**

Species: human

Age: 17 (b. May 21, C.E. 1983/Hakurei 99)

Ability: The power to wield any close-quarters weapon as if she was an expert, for as long as she is touching any part of it.

The stage 2 boss in Story of Eastern Wonderland. "Miyamoto" comes from Miyamoto Musashi, the greatest swordsman in Japanese history. The line "I have come to take the Hakurei" is taken directly from the current translation of the game, and Reimu similarly mistook it for a marriage proposal. (Also, for the record, the ages I've set for Reimu and Meira are the same respective ages as Usagi and Mamoru at the beginning of Sailor Moon. Just saying.)

I gave her the above power because I just thought it would be funny if she had an ability which is completely broken in its own sphere of competence (unless, of course, she encounters a _master_ swordswoman or two), while at the same being totally useless in Gensokyo, since everyone uses danmaku.

 **Kamishirasawa Keine (上白沢 慧音): The History-Eating Historian**

Species: were-hakutaku (human most of the time, transforms into a more monstrous form except for her face under the full moon).

Age: Unknown

Ability: Consuming and hiding history (normal form), creating history (hakutaku form).

The stage 3 boss in Imperishable Night. Mostly canon.

 **Kawaji Kotohime (川路 小兎姫): The Peacekeeping Youkai-Exterminator**

Species: human

Age: 26

Ability: Summoning a glowing silver cloud and creating exploding mines in danmaku. Knowledge of low-tech forensics.

One of the playable characters in Phantasmagoria of Dim. Dream. "Kawaji" comes from Kawaji Toshiyoshi, a former samurai who helped develop the Japanese police force during the Meiji Restoration; he died six years before the Great Hakurei Barrier went up. The police uniform is based on that of a photo on Wikipedia of Japanese police officers in 1875, under "Police services of the Empire of Japan".

I decided to make Kotohime sane, competent, and an _actual_ police officer, partly because Gensokyo already has enough weirdos and lunatics running around, but also so that I could introduce two concepts which I kind of felt have been relatively unexplored in canon and fandom: 1. law enforcement in the Human Village — _somebody's_ got to keep out the thieving witches! — and 2. those youkai exterminators with nonzero effectiveness, but who still don't hold a candle to Reimu and Keine; canon mentions in a few places that the Village was originally a settlement of youkai exterminators, but this has never been _shown_.

 **Noroiko (呪い子): The Demon of the Deadly Dance**

Species: Human-looking "manipulation-of-whatever" youkai

Age: 31

Ability: Manipulation of curses.

The unnamed stage 2 midboss from Story of Eastern Wonderland; "Noroiko" is a nickname invented by fans, which comes from the fact that her bullets look like the kanji "呪" ("noroi"), meaning "curse." The homing-bullet thing can basically happen in the game; everything else, I basically just made up, since everything I just mentioned is _literally all there is to know about her_. Hooray for "not technically original"-characters!

 **Kirisame Marisa (霧雨 魔理沙): The Apprentice Human Witch**

Species: human

Age: 13 ( 15, CE 1986/Hakurei 102)

Ability: Can create a star-shaped spark by snapping her fingers. Miscellaneous witchcraft, optimized for negating anti-youkai countermeasures.

The stage 4 boss in Story of Eastern Wonderland, and playable in nearly every subsequent game. Mostly canon. Most of the non-canon bits are taken up by gayness.

 **Mima (魅魔)/Kirisame Mima (霧雨 美眞): The Spirit of Self-Made Vengeance**

Species: vengeful spirit (dead human)

Age: Lived 42 years, dead 51 years

Ability: Like a magician-youkai, she has the capacity to learn any magic which can be learned or taught.

The second boss of the Hell route in Highly Responsive to Prayers, the final boss in Story of Eastern Wonderland, and a playable character in both Phantasmagoria of and Mystic Square. I want to say 50% canon.

The canon kanji above use characters which roughly mean "charming demon." As part of the name "Kirisame Mima", her given name consists of characters which mean "truth" and "beauty"; I wasn't trying to do anything particularly meaningful with that. This is known as "ateji", kanji chosen for their sound.

 **Yakumo Ran (八雲 藍): The Nine-Tailed Familiar**

Species: kitsune

Age: Unknown, presumably at least 800

Ability: Superior intellect, can perform calculations in her head faster than a contemporary computer in 2001 (jury's out on a 2017 computer).

The Extra Stage boss in Perfect Cherry Blossom. Details in this story are unclear.

 **Yakumo Yukari (八雲 紫): The Youkai of Boundaries**

Species: Human-looking "manipulation-of-whatever" youkai

Age: Unknown

Ability: Creation, manipulation, and nullification of conceptual boundaries.

The Phantasm Stage boss in Perfect Cherry Blossom. Details in this story are unclear.

* * *

 **Other Characters**

 **Hakurei Chiyo** (博麗 千代, CE 1971-1999/Hakurei 87-115): Perfect Cherry Blossom's prologue contains an in-universe introduction to Gensokyo attributed to "the 13th Shrine Maiden of Hakurei". There was nothing to indicate that this referred to Reimu — or _didn't_ refer to her, for that matter — but thirteen seemed to be about right for the number of Shrine Maidens before Reimu, so I went with that. (On the other hand, there wasn't room in the chronology for thirteen Shrine Maidens in 115 years if I didn't want 5 years to be the freaking average rather than the lower limit, so I had to move the actual founding of the Shrine to 1829 ...) Anyway, there's also a sort of pre-existing fan-character called "the Previous Generation Hakurei Miko" (先代博麗の巫女, "Sendai Hakurei no Miko"). The deal with Chiyo's name is, the characters for "Chiyo" can also be read as "Sendai" (a similar pun was used with Chihiro/Sen in the movie _Spirited Away_ ). Unlike the fan-character, Chiyo wore proper miko attire.

 **Konngara** (age unknown): The final boss of the Hell route in Highly Responsive to Prayers. I repurposed her as the god of the Hakurei Shrine because of reasons.

 **Hakurei Ichigo** (博麗 苺, 1798-1852), **Hakurei Niji** (博麗 虹, 1828-1868), **Hakurei Sanna** (博麗 算名, 1841-1887), **Hakurei Yonmi** (1867-1899): I couldn't come up with anything good for their names, so I just picked a couple of normal names which are number puns: "ichi" (一) means 1, "ni" (二) means 2, "san" (三) means 3, and "yon" (四) means 4. And none of these names' kanji actually have anything to do with numbers.

 **Kirisame Nakamoto** (霧雨 仲基, age 38), **Kirisame Ayumu** (霧雨 歩夢, age 39): Marisa's parents. "Nakamoto" comes from Tominaga Nakamoto, an eighteenth-century merchant and philosopher from Osaka who practiced a Japanese form of atheism; I just found Tominaga's article in the Wikipedia category "Japanese merchants", read over his philosophy, and decided I'd hit jackpot with regards to the kind of guy who wouldn't allow his daughter to become a witch. "Ayumu" is made of the characters for "walk" and "dream" (夢 is shared by Reimu, Yumemi, etc), signifying that she's not as down-to-earth as Nakamoto. Of the two, Ayumu is slightly more mature, and considerably better at letting things go.

 **Morichika Rinnosuke** (森近 霖之助, age 64): A friend of the Kirisame family. The protagonist of Curiosities of Lotus Asia, and one of the few male characters. Mostly canon. According to a bit that was narrated by Marisa, he was apprenticed to Marisa's father at some point, and she has no idea how this fits in chronologically.

 **Hara Takumi** (原 匠, age 42): Rika's father. His given name literally just means "carpenter." I didn't describe him in much detail, but I based his appearance on one of the characters in the illustration for the Human Village in _Perfect Memento in Strict Sense_. Yes, that guy is now Rika's dad.


End file.
